^{Isaiah 45:5} I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
⁶ so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form light and create darkness

I know this – this truth and light is woven into every cell of my being.  And as I watched God’s sun set last evening it gave me pause realizing how living in the light and living in truth and living in HIM has so little to do with our particular location, time, or circumstance.

The sun is always setting or rising somewhere – just as Jimmy Buffett croons that a margarita can be had at any time because it is always “5 o’clock somewhere,” –  so too, with light, with the sun’s rising and setting and shining all the day long – always somewhere…God is always present, in it, shining the light, revealing truth.

God has had me travel to many different places over the past few years; England, Italy, Tennessee, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, New York, Mississippi, Utah, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Georgia, and Hawaii.  And to most of these places I have traveled on my own.

Though each a foreign land, each, too, suffused with God’s light, helping me feel at home.  As long as I tarried there in His light, abiding in His truth, His Word, His Way, His light, I was ‘home’ and not alone.

And in so doing, up to and including the new strange land where I have landed for a season, I have known the security and comfort He so promises, here in Psalm 37:

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will make your vindication shine like the light,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

Living in the light.  Living in the truth.  No matter where, no matter circumstance, no matter the time of day.  It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere.

Lectionary Readings:  Psalm 37 Isa. 45:5-17; Eph. 5:15-33; Mark 4:21-34