Refuge — Local Pastor

Do you feel it? Your mind is scattered.

Have you noticed? It’s only 10 AM and you’re already running late.

Life keeps pushing. It can be relentless. Every week brings mounting responsibilities that turn into heaping routine. Every day starts with the thought of what needs to be done. After a while, even fun is stripped of its joy. Our calendars can’t manage it all. So we look for an answer in the craziness; we look for a pause button.

We need rest. Rest from the idea that we’re not doing enough. Rest from the idea that we are not enough. Social media is portraying the best of our lives so that the whole of our lives looks flawless. We crumble under the pressure as we compare ourselves to others and a culture that tells us only to share our best side. We long for a sense of self worth. We need a refuge, one that provides more than a temporary escape. We need a refuge that can restore our very identity.

Then, from somewhere deep inside us (somewhere honest that we cannot hide), a phrase comes to mind: “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:2) But do you trust Him? Do you really believe that He could make your life more fulfilling than all the activity and accolades?

C.S. Lewis captured it this way:

It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

Find refuge in Him this day, so that you too can declare, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)

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