# 1 The Secret Place {Come Away with Me, My Beloved}

Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”  The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh^, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.”  
The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by,              I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.     Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen" (Emphasis added)
-Exodus 33:18-23 NLT

I have read these verses many times before, but I have never thought that much on verse 22 before today. Before the Lord showed Moses His glory, He first hid him in "the crevice of the rock" and He also covered him with His hand. I wonder why God hid Moses away before showing him His glory? I don't have the answer, but as I think on this it makes me wonder if God still reveals Himself this way? I don't mean so much in the physical sense as I mean in the method of how He meets us in our lives. Does God still call us away---"hide us in the rock"---before He shows us His glory; before He shows us His goodness and grace? 

I wonder this because I feel like my heart is hidden, and it is not something I naturally like. When I am hidden, I cannot be noticed by others; my spiritual life is not out in the open to be praised or admired; my devotion to the Lord is put to the test as I live before an audience of one; and my desire to feel good about my spiritual life cannot be gratified by the common rituals that make me feel spiritual. The longing to be hidden in the secret place---in the presence of God---can be overshadowed by the realization that the gratification of "self" cannot come with me. This is not easy...for in my heart I wish to have both, but this would be to serve both God and my flesh,which is impossible. And so the war rages on inside of me.

Yet it seems to me that even as I struggle with these sinful desires, the Lord calls me to come away with Him. It is as if He has heard my secret longing to see His glory, and He has called me to come away...to come away from the noise, the approval of others, the appearance of godliness, the guilt of living out (or not) rituals of faith...to come away with Him, to be hidden, to see His glory, to know Him more deeply, to meet Him alone. 

This kind of call does not include the option of a play-by-play face book update on my status or the ability for others to know or understand what is happening in my life. It is a call to the secret place---to be hid in the rock and covered by His hand.