The cathedral of the pines.

     Where would you find the cathedral of the pines in your life?  For me that location would need to be in Yosemite.  Maybe at the bottom of Half Dome.  There are many other locations where we could feasibly consider them to be cathedrals as well.  The cathedral of the pines isn't necessarily a physical place but more of a frame of spirit, mind, and heart.  It's a place where we can go not only physically but also spiritually.  Most of us have places that when brought to the forefront of our memory elicit a feeling of peace or tranquility.  We long to stay there but alas jobs, home life, and other distractions need addressing as well.  That doesn't mean we can't go there.  In the blink of an eye we can go from present in a boring or stressful meeting to a sense of calm and peace hearing that brook tumbling behind our camp.  Maybe during lunch we can have a daydream where all the worries that bind us are broken and we truly feel free in our place in life. 
     In the Bible God tells us to worship in spirit and truth.  He goes on to say that his house is not a building built by man.  Why does he tell us this?  Because he wants to meet us wherever we are and whatever we are doing.  Asked once about going to church, I replied that I went to church every day.  Didn't miss a day of church.  They asked me how I could do that and I told them that my worship of God comes from the heart and not from sitting in a pew reciting the Lord's Prayer (there is nothing wrong with that).  Just as we get caught up in where we worship and when, we get caught up in putting others in our box or a box of their own.  Sorry but I haven't lived in a box for years.  There isn't much peace there and I don't have the room to roam my garden with God.  Speaking of which my garden is doing great!  I need to pull weeds but that's another subject.  Basically, when I am in the cathedral of the pines I am free from confines that determine how worship actually takes place.  Worship takes place when we place our focus on God wherever we are shutting out the distractions that would pull us away.
     People want to know how much you care rather than care about how much you know.  In the cathedral of the pines there is little to be pretentious about.  We get down to brass tacks and begin to understand the gift God has given us in creation.  I can't even begin to count the number of times I have come around a corner of a trail to be stopped dead in my tracks at the beauty I was allowed to encounter.  Reverence for that place is installed inside of me.  That overwhelming feeling that I am on holy ground floods me and all I can do is worship.  All other thoughts flee with this wave and I'm left blessed beyond measure and recharged for the next part of the journey.  That's what God intended the assembly of believers to be like.  When we gather together we are to be engaging that oneness with God in any and all capacities.  The cathedral of the pines then becomes both a pattern of where and how to live but also the impetus to take us there.  When you are beside yourself today, go to the cathedral and draw some cool water from the river that runs through it.