What’s your happy place? Is it a chair on your front porch? A spot at your favorite coffee shop downtown? A quiet place deep in the woods nobody but you knows about? It’s that special place you go to and all seems right with the world, regardless of what’s happening in your life and the space around you.

I’ve realize that my hammock is my happy place, which is a great blessing because it means I can find this place wherever I am. It was true in Panama, Thailand, Swaziland, and Botswana; it was true back in Michigan and is now true here in Georgia; and it will continue to be true wherever I journey to next. I’ve been trying to carve out more time to spend with Jesus lately, and as I did this in my hammock the other day, He taught me something great… My relationship with Him is much like my happy place: I can have it wherever I am and no matter what is happening in my life. In the good and the bad, in the calm and the storm, it is the one thing that can remain unaffected by the world around me. In the most confusing time of my life, I can be with Him. In my greatest joys, I can be with Him. In any career and any life choice, I can be with Him. If someday everything seems to fall apart, I can still be with Him. He is my one constant.

 I’ve always come to Jesus with an agenda—requests, things to thank Him for, questions I hoped He would answer, or decisions I needed Him to walk me through. But as we hung out in my hammock the other day, I got a taste of what it’s like to just sit with Him… and I felt how wonderful it is. My agenda quickly faded away until I had no plan but to just be in His presence and hang out. I think this is the connection He most desires with us—to simply be together.

I want to make this more of a priority in my life. I asked Him what this would look like for us—where our special place to hang out would be, and He showed me some pretty cool things… but those are (maybe) to share at another time. In a relationship, two people can be together anywhere, but there are certain places where they feel most strongly connected. With God, we just need to find these places and show up.

Where will your place be?