My neighbor just bought a new car. It's a beautiful SUV type, a deep red in color,

shiny and glowing. 

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The mechanic just told me our 16-year-old minivan, with 205,000 miles on it, was

on hospice. "Just add gasoline, keep air in the tires, and change the oil," he said. "

But make plans."

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Right. I'll go out and fertilize the money tree.

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Psalm 73 starts out with that same kind of attitude. "Surely God is good!" it says.

"Just not to me."

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I think every person of faith goes through seasons where their life doesn't feel the daily blessing of God. I mean, really, we come to expect our circumstances to be perfect and rainbows and good times dripping from cloudless skies. As for me? Guilty as charged. That's my season right now. No real reason to beef, but the car is dying, the toilet leaked all over the floor (gotta replace

all that, plus the ceiling of the garage), the "check engine" light is flickering on the other car, the Giants didn't win the pennant (or even 70 games), there's a gopher tunneling through my entire drought-deadened backyard...wah, wah, wah.

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And on top of it all, there's this feeling of silence from heaven. God is good...but I'm not feeling it.

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Been there? There now?

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I found a little clue in Psalm 73, buried waaaay down there in verse 17. "UNTIL I CAME into the sanctuary of God..."

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There's this tendency I have to expect God to "show up" in my part of His universe, to pour out the blessings, to speak through His Word, to make me happy. I want Him to come to me (which, incidentally, He did, has, does, and will). But this situation in Psalm 73 and my situation (and mindset) just begs for something different to take place.

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UNTIL. All this situation gets edited a bit when I reach the "until" moment. It's a conscious shift from noticing my neighbor's new car to moving myself in a different direction.

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I CAME. I moved. I went. I arrived at a different spot. Where?

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INTO THE SANCTUARY OF GOD. It's not "going to church." It's approaching and pursuing God Himself...where HE is. His place. His sanctuary. The place of His total Lordship. I have to go THERE, because He already came HERE. That's what Jesus did, giving me a transformed soul which has an open invitation to show up freely and forgiven in front of God in His sanctuary. And instead I can dwell on the doorstep staring morosely at someone else's car.

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"Whom have I in heaven but Thee? There is NONE upon the earth that I desire besides THEE. My flesh and my heart fail (yup, and usually for no good reason), but the LORD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26).

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One last little observation. In verse 2, Asaph the psalmist says, "As for me, my feet were stumbling." In verse 28, he's come to a different place: "As for me (see that?), the nearness of God is my good."

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God never moved. He was, is, will always be near. I just need to reach my moment of "Until," and chase back to His sanctuary and into His presence. That's when - and not until then - my "as for me" attitude changes.