Adoring Day 6
Finding Satisfaction in the Sanctuary

Psalm 42
1 Samuel 1:1-11
Philippians 4:4-7

The woman exhales as she tosses a heavy-looking satchel over one arm and winces as the weight digs into her shoulder. She thrusts her toddler forward with one hand, deftly snatching a coin from chubby fingers while balancing a smaller baby on her hip. Nodding, she smiles brightly in answer to a bystander’s question. “Fine, thanks! Glad we made it!” she responds. She pivots and hands her older child over to the worker in the toddler room.  “How are you guys?” Smiling, she nods in agreement as she turns down another hallway toward the nursery. “It IS a beautiful morning! Enjoy the service – see you later!”

Nodding and smiling, smiling and nodding.

Her heels click persistently and she hooks the straps of her bag with her thumb and slings it back over her shoulder again. Kissing her baby’s forehead, she steels herself against the cries she knows will start at any moment. She waves to an acquaintance and opens the nursery door. An unearthly wail pierces the relative calm of the hallway. Smiling, she gently plucks imaginary fuzz from her smallest one’s shirt. She hugs him close for a moment as she whisper-comforts the child she has affectionately dubbed “the Screamer”. The shrill sound seems to grow louder. She winces again as she disentangles herself from swinging legs and arms and pries the infant’s fingers from her hair. “Mama will be back right after class, okay Sweetheart? Have fun!  You are fine!” The little boy presses his screaming face up to the window, tears streaming as she adjusts the heavy bag and blows him a kiss before striding purposefully down the hallway, nodding and smiling to acquaintances and strangers alike.

Nodding and smiling, smiling and nodding.

Turning the corner, she slips into a small room tucked inside a quiet hallway. A cursory glance assures her that no one else is present, so she sets her heavy purse down and rests two hands on the countertop.  She takes a breath and examines the reflection before her. A pale face and slightly disheveled hair draw her attention; she sighs as her reflection reveals obviously tired eyes.
Weary. Sad. Overwhelmed.
The sudden serenity following a week of cacophony is almost too much contrast to bear, and tears slip silently over pale cheeks.

Can you see her?

Nodding and smiling, smiling and nodding.

Are you her?

Different circumstances perhaps, but still her.
Instead of a child, it’s a sickness, or a relationship, a heart-wound, financial struggle, depression. Something that reflects a heavy spirit.

I have been her. Truthfully, I might be again.
Maybe tomorrow, maybe next month.
And that is okay.

Doing life is an amazing, wonderful gift.
And doing life is also hard.
There are
days and nights,
middles and ends,
expectations and responsibilities,
broken families and heartbreak,
absent mamas and overbearing daddies,
loved ones gone too soon,
frustration and,
infertility and,
disappointment and,
all
the
things….

And sometimes, our response to the constant, noisy, overwhelmingly beautiful gift of LIFE is to feel sad.
And it’s okay.

Hannah experienced deep feelings of sadness, too.
She loved her husband and was heartbroken over her inability to conceive.
She couldn’t eat and the Word tells us that, “her heart was sad.”
Her husband loved her and desperately wanted her to be happy, but as much as he loved her, he simply wasn’t capable of changing her circumstance or her perception.

Her husband Elkanah said, “Oh, Hannah, why are you crying? Why aren’t you eating? And why are you so upset? Am I not of more worth to you than ten sons?”
So Hannah ate. Then she pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary.  (1 Samuel 1:9-11, The Message)

Did you catch that?
She entered the sanctuary.

Faced with the reality of her emotion and the inability of herself or her husband to change her feelings or her circumstance, she entered into the place of worship. Rather than continue to wrestle with her feelings on her own, she entered her Father’s Presence. She responded to a conversation with Him that He had undoubtedly begun with gentle whispers in her heart.
She accepted the opportunity to build relationship with Him.
And He listened to her heart and changed her reality, by giving her hope.

If you know Hannah’s story, you know that God gave her the desire of her heart, a baby boy.
And Hannah gave that little boy right back to God.
Yet she was still satisfied.
Her heart wasn’t devastated when she literally gave up her young son to live and work in the temple
because her heart was already satisfied by worship and adoration of the God who loved her.

The morning after she heard from God, “she rose early and worshipped before the Lord.”
The day she brought her son to live at the temple, she first brought an offering and worshipped.
Through the life focus of such adoration, she taught her son to also live a life of worship.
As she left her little Samuel, who would grow up to be an incredible leader and prophet, her heart overflowed with adoration in the form of a song.
Her sadness ended with a song because adoration was her heart’s focus.

Each of us will inevitably experience sadness. It’s what we choose to worship when that sadness comes that makes all the difference. Will our worship be focused on our self or our Savior?
Only one recipient of our adoration can bring about life transformation!

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