Daily Lesson for May 19, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 95 verses 4 and 5:

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

The geography of the soul encompasses many different kinds of places, but every place belongs to God.

Those who stand on great mountaintops in life should enjoy the view. They should exult in whatever they see. They should rejoice in whatever it is they have accomplished. They will have to come down again, but they should enjoy the heck out of it while it lasts.

Some journey through dry places. There is a desolation to the time -- a loneliness in the soul. The journey has been long and will be longer still and survival is sometimes doubted. But again and again there is oasis -- a spring of hope which keeps us alive and going. For this wilderness belongs to God also, and his hands fashioned its sand atop the earth and its hidden water beneath.

And then there are the depths -- a place with no footing where gravity keeps pulling us down and the voice of hope is distant and distorted as it calls to us from beneath the waters.  Yet its feint sound can still be heard -- it tells us to let ourselves go, to not be afraid of plunging more deeply.  For God is there also.

All the soul's places belong to God. There is no place the soul can wander where God is not.  Mountain, desert, ocean depth -- to God belong all the places of the earth and all the souls who inhabit them.