Out of Place

A couple of times a year it seems that I am required to spend a few days in Vegas. It is the least favorite thing I am asked to do. It is an assault on my ears and eyes and spirit. I can't hear well because of all the noise, I can't breath well because of all the smoke, and I can't think well because of the lifestyle exhibited here. Vegas stands for all the things that I do not. Yet, there is a certain fascination with this place. It is like a little boy peering in the window of a candy store at all the pretty, fake candies. They lure him in, yet if he eats them, because they are fake they will make him desperately ill. So Vegas is for the adult boys and girls. We peer in the windows, knowing the lights and fun are fake, knowing the participation will coarsen the soul and make us desperately ill. Yet we are tempted.

So when I come here my disciplines get better. While on the road I try to spend a portion of every morning in Word, prayer, and thought. But sometimes I miss, I slack or am too tired or bored or lazy. But it is not the same missing the disciplines in Albany, GA or Syracuse NY or Tampa FL, these places are not specifically designed to trip me up. Vegas was created for the sole purpose of extracting money and morals from the military personnel to or from billets in the service. It has grown to ensnare all of us.

This morning I was simply looking for a moment of guidance. The city, the sales meeting, the temptations will be relentless over the next few days. Here is what the Spirit offered up:

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
  Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
   who speaks the truth from his heart
   and has no slander on his tongue,
   who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
   who despises a vile man
   but honors those who fear the Lord,
   who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
   who lends money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will never be shaken.
Psalm 15

"who speaks the truth from his heart" This tells me that the Lord would prefer we speak to people truthfully in love. This city is not built on this standard. I cannot adopt the ways of this city without sacrificing or mortgaging my place in the "sanctuary". It is too easy to speak the truth and intentionally harm by doing so. It is also easy to forgo the truth and turn our lives from God. It requires both.
"who keeps his oath even when it hurts" This life has become a series of "deals" that are easily broken. Who may live in God's presence? The one who tells the truth in love and who stands by what he says.

This moment in the Word has given me a point for the day. While I may be tempted by the fake candy, I know that there is a better and more satisfying way to live. So in the midst of all that is not God, He whispers a quiet truth, "You are still mine."

Godspeed to us all, though tempted, return to the sanctuary.
Don