Are you in a good place right now? Or maybe not so much? One of the things we search for and have a hard time finding is life in a good place, a good heart place.
The Bible pays considerable attention to issues of place. The plain east of the Jordan river was beautiful but was not considered a good place in God’s direction of Abraham and his cohort; but the land west of the Jordan, though barren, was the land of promise (Gen 13). Some mountains, such as Mt Hebron, Mt Ararat, Mt Sinai, and Mt Zion, were considered special meeting places with God in the Old Testament (Gen 8, 13, Ex 19, 2 Sam 5). And in the New Testament the meaning of the Gospel is tied to small places like Bethlehem, insignificant places like Nazareth, and places of death like Golgotha and Hades.
Often, though, the determination of a place as good or not so good is a matter of the heart. The Apostle Paul found a Roman prison, certainly no joyride for anyone incarcerated there, could nevertheless be a place of joy; indeed some form of the Greek word for joy is found some twenty-one times in Philippians, which was written from Paul’s fourth Roman imprisonment. Think about the most meaningful places in your life; perhaps a grandmother’s porch, a particular spot at the beach, a favorite fishing spot, a football field, or a church pew. The picture above was taken from about 13000 feet elevation, overlooking what became for our family one of our most sacred places, the Continental Divide overlooking Collegiate Peaks Wilderness in central Colorado.
Do you know the 1984 film Places in the Heart with Sally Field, Danny Glover, and John Malkovich? Toward the end of the movie, which is rich with Christian symbolism, the widow Edna Spalding (Sally Field) says to her friend and helper (Danny Glover), “You took a no-account piece of land and a bunch of people that didn’t know what they were doin’ and you farmed that land better than anybody.” That hardscrabble piece of land became a good place through the love and labor of a widow, a blind man, an African-American, and two children. It became a good place.
We are, of course, in some sense, waiting for our time to go to a good place in heaven. Paul speaks of the creation itself groaning in pain and travail as we wait for the redemption of this world to become transformed into a new heavens, a new earth in which dwells righteousness and peace and in which the Name which is above every name will fill hearts, lives, and activities with the love of God. We have a dear friend who at this moment is waiting in hospice for that very transition to a new place.
But this earth too can be a heavenly place of God’s love. Oh, to be sure, that love often receives a cold response, occasionally even downright hostility in this world. Jesus warned that would be the case: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33, NKJV). But the writer of Ephesians prays, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). And that triumph of God’s grace through Jesus Christ can echo in all the places of our lives which are lived in faith, hope, and love. Our life can become a good place, indeed a heavenly place, even with its difficulties, losses, and others of the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” (Shakespeare).
How? What is the good place for us in this time, on this earth, in our little patch of human life just as it is? What is the good place Jesus promises to prepare for us (Jn 14:1)? We usually speak of Jesus preparing a place for us in heaven and, of course, that’s not wrong. But if we read with open hearing the words of Jesus in Jn 13-17, if we can listen with hearts tuned to the Spirit and not just to what we expect to hear in Jesus’ words, it becomes clear what a good place God has for us, here and now. It is a place in the heart. It is the place of love.
Simply, powerfully, softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, “Come home;” come home to a good place, a very good place. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us…” (Eph 5:1). A good place indeed …
A place of love.