I Don’t Want to Go Home!

When I was pastor at Ivey Memorial UMC, we had a tradition. After church, if the children would let me pick them up – they could ring the church bell. They loved to ring the bell, and this tradition would often keep me at church a long time. Many of the children would cry if they didn’t ring the bell that day. They would say, “I don’t want to go home.” The Catholic priest at the church across the street asked me one morning at breakfast, “Is there any logic to the way you Methodists ring the bell on Sunday?”

David had a strong desire to worship God just as the children at Ivey had a desire to ring the bell. David wanted peace to prevail so that he could instead “gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4) David’s heart desire was to be with God – wherever he was. Israel’s greatest king intended to use peacetime to “sing and make music to the Lord.” (v.6)

Other scriptures tell us we can worship God anywhere. God dwells within us in the person of the Holy Spirit.  ICorinthians 3:16 – Ephesians 3:17).

May we all be like the little children at Ivey Memorial UMC. May we be so excited that we yearn to ring the bell and worship. May we long to spend our days in God’s presence and worship with fellow believers. We find our safety and our greatest joy in God.

Prayer – Father, you are my light and my joy. I want to worship You without distraction or interruption. I want to believe in You with a childlike faith. Amen.

Psalm 27:4 – “One thing I ask from the Lord . . . that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

Author: The Rev. Tommy Herndon
Photos: Janko Ferlic & John H. Rhodes, courtesy of Unsplash