Dwell.

Psalm 37:3 says this, "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture."

Dwell means to remain for a time, or to live as a resident.  Pulpit Commentary puts it this way: "Remain where thou art, and be satisfied with the thought of God's faithfulness. Feed on this."

That is a very powerful message if you think about it.  Remain where thou art and be satisfied with the thought of God's faithfulness...

It makes me think about a lot of things, a lot of things that our society does are backwards compared to how they did them in Jesus' day.  Even though they are backwards it is hard to say if they are wrong or not.  Most explain, "That's just the way things are now." Which is a simple excuse, but you have to wonder what the heart of God wants.

Think about this, "Remain where you are."  People used to stake their claim and live on the same plot of land, in the same house, all the years of their life.  My grandparents grew up 8 miles apart, and they now reside in the house my grandfather grew up in.  They have lived there all but maybe 3-4 years of their married life together.

My parents also have lived in the same house for 23-24 years.  That is unheard of in today's society.  The only reason my family has been so permanent in location is because we are "tied to the land."  My daddy is a farmer and he can't exactly relocate his profession.

I remember one day in one of my college classes.  My teacher was speaking about this very thing.  She was explaining that we are now a mobile society.  Everyone moves quite a bit now.  The Internet, automobiles and airplanes have made all this moving extremely easy to do.  To prove her point, she asked our class of 40 to raise their hands if we had lived in the same town our whole life.  There were about 10 hands that went up.  She told us to keep them up if we had lived in the same house our whole life.  This left three hands up.  She explained this was rare and the numbers were only this high because we lived in the Bible belt and the Bible belt is always the last to adopt new ideas.  Furthering her point, she asked us to raise our hands if our parents were from the town we grew up in.  My hand stayed up.  Her frustration rose.

"Well your grandparents certainly aren't from the same town are they?"  she half asking, half assumingly stated to me.

I grinned from ear to ear and said, "Actually, both of my grandparents on both sides spent most of their lives within 40 miles of where I grew up."  

I don't have to explain to you that college professors don't like to be wrong.  This one in particular happened to be a  real know-it-all.  She studied my face for a minute, ignoring the giggles around the room, and quickly decided to change the topic and move forward in her lecture.

"Remain where you are..."

So is it bad to move off and around and up and down and back?  I don't see why it would be, but back in the day they never did.  I understand my situation is unique, because the majority of people today are movers.  Perhaps I am taking this passage out of the Bible way to literal.  Maybe he is only suggesting we enjoy where we are while we are there.  Contentness.

One other thing I'd like to mention though.  I noticed many of my friends got an anxious kick in them around our junior year of college, including myself.  It was odd, it was as though a fairy had came around and hit all of us with the same pixie dust.  We seemed to wake up one morning and sickly desire a home.  Not mommy and daddy's home, but a home of our own.  We each so desperately wanted a permanent place to call ours.  We wanted a place we could stay and not have to move out each summer.  We wanted a dwelling we could decorate and cook in.  We wanted a space to care for and enjoy.

I remember many coffee-talks about this subject with a plethora of different girlfriends.  How strange it was that we independent, go-getter, dream-makers all suddenly wanted a place to be permanent with--and at the ripe old age of 20, maybe 21.

I think this goes back to the way we are programed.  I believe that God designed us to marry young.  They did it for centuries!  I mean look at the psyche of high school kids.  At about age 18 they start thinking marriage, but why?  Who puts this thought in their heads?  I don't believe it's put there, I believe it happens, and yes some country kids may act on this idea, but most of today's kids are ashamed of this desire.  They are ashamed because society tells them they are better than marriage.  They have to get a degree and a good job and prove themselves in the world.  Then and only then can they start thinking of marriage.

Perhaps this is a good thing because we have more time to find ourselves and grow up, but then again maybe it is wrong because it makes purity an impossible pedestal.

It's interesting really.  We teach our Christians to remain soft and pure and holy until they are safely married.  Unfortunately, they are to remain this way during the most active times of their lives when their bodies are most ready to reproduce and latch on to something permanent beyond mom and pop.

I'm not blaming anybody or saying our teachings are wrong, I'm just saying, it looks to me like today's society has it backwards.  Our bodies aren't meant to reproduce in their 30s and 40s like people in my generation are doing.  Yet with school and work becoming a priority we have to.

I guess as a 20-something I am saying that I would love to dwell on the land permanently.  I like the security of having one house in one location long-term.

On the other hand I get restless with the thought of settling down already.  There is so much of the world I still need to see.  I want to travel and live in at least one other state before I settle down for good.  Plus, I'm single--there's nothing holding me back.  Now is the time for me to go live a gypsy life before I really have to stay in one location for a family and husband.

Either way, the point of this lesson is to remain in the land for a time.  Right now my dwelling is here, so I will make it a point to dwell in this land and enjoy God's faithfulness.