Deep Longing and Joy

Read this verse from Psalm 84 (verse 2):

My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Have you ever felt that way? Has your soul longed for God? As I read the verse, the word "joy" jumped out at me.

We talk a lot about people having a calling from God. On Laity Sunday, it was a main theme. How do we know when we are hearing God's voice, or someone else's voice, calling on our time.

I like Frederick Buechner method for discerning this. He says that the work we need to do for God is work that we need to do, and that the world needs to have done. And then here's my favorite quote:

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Is it work that the world needs to have done? Does it bring you deep gladness?

In other words, is it work that answers that longing in your soul? When you do it, do your heart and flesh sing for joy at the thought of it? Search out work and service that makes your heart sing with joy. Search out work that when you aren't doing it leaves you with a deep longing in your soul.

Image: Sky at work today.