As I was sitting in my hammock a couple weeks ago, I was reminded a lot of my adventure in Colorado this past summer. These thoughts made me miss not only dwelling in His creation with some of my closest friends but also being basically cut off from the world. It's always refreshing to be away from social media and the real world for awhile. I was pretty torn when we were done climbing Casco Peak.

But today, I'm starting to think that that trip wasn't about just being away from the problems and trials of real life for awhile, but perhaps it was to get away from real life for a bit to go back into the world with a fresh perspective. After all, should we really be surprised when the world acts like the world?

Being in the middle of nowhere taught me what it meant to dwell in His presence, and it was easy there because there weren't very many distractions. I guess I write all of this to say at what point did I forget it's possible to dwell in the presence of God when we're living every day life, too?

God is the only one who is able to see our soul for what is truly is. When we're with people, they see our body, our outward appearance, Only our closest friends really see our soul, and even then, they aren't able to see it as fully as God can. A few weeks ago I heard David Lawrence say that you are a soul and you merely have a body.

When we come before God, we are bare. He sees our hopes and our fears and our dreams. He sees our anger, our sorrow, our guilt, our joy. He sees us for who we really are - and while that can be scary, all I can think about is how comforting it is that God, who knows every part of us and created  us, loves us.

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." 1 John 3:1

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." Jeremiah 17: 9-10