High Places

2 Chronicles 15:17
Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.

I seem to remember something like this from Kings. Today I want to look at things fresh, so I will not look it up. In an interesting way, it relates to the exchanged life conference I went to. I'm trying to look at everything with that prism, and in the fully committed heart, I see the life in Christ.
Heart can mean the essence of a person, and Asa's belonged to God. All his life. I like that addition. Too many of the good kings lost their way in later life. All his life.
Yet there is the matter of the high places. That speaks to me of the flesh, and the sin that remains in us, though not part of us. Oddly, I feel more kindly to Asa. The high places are fleshly ways of coping, of incorporating some earthly wisdom into our search for God. The high places made a certain sense. Perhaps they were magic places, where people felt the spirits around them. They appealed to the senses.
Though Asa was so fully in God, his flesh said leave the high places.
God, please keep showing me the high places I've left.