December 13th

Refuge

            Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.

            Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;  for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings. Selah

            For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

Psalm 61:1-5

            “When my heart is faint,” is sometimes interpreted as “When my heart is overwhelmed.”  I think that encapsulates my emotional state better.  One of the interesting things that I have found from my experiences in parenting and working with non-profits is that “overwhelmed” is a cumulative state.  The event that sends us into overwhelmed territory is usually not something big; it is something smaller that we could normally handle, but we have no emotional reserves or no financial reserves or we are stretched so thin that we cannot handle one single additional thing.  So it crashes over us like a tidal wave and ruins whatever hopes, dreams or plans we had been carrying with us.

            What do we do when we are overwhelmed?  There are as many different answers as there are readers of this post.  Some people eat.  Some people exercise.  Some people work.  Some people pray.  Some people watch television.  Some people travel.  Some people sleep.  You get the idea.

            Overwhelmed is not a time when we think logically.  It is not a time when we rationally weigh the pros and cons of every choice.  People do not think strategically in crisis; overwhelmed is all instinct and reaction.  It is struggling to get our head above water in the midst of drowning.  It is fight or flight.  It is an unconscious reaction towards wherever we think relief will come.

            The Psalmist describes God as the Rock, the Refuge, the Strong Tower.  He is the One who can shelter and protect us through all the storms.  He is the One who will not fail.  He is the only one who can save us when life crashes over us like a wave.  And He is the one that we never remember to seek out.  My first thought when I am overwhelmed is never, “What does God think of this?”  We know that God is the right answer, but that is not where our instincts send us.

            How do we ensure that God is who we turn to in crisis?  How do we turn a discipline of prayer into an instinct?  We know the answer to this from our kids.  It is practice and repetition and consistency.  If I want my son to wash his dishes after dinner, I remind him every night.  I show him how to do it.  I call him back to it over and over and over again.  We write it down and make it part of our routine.  It has to be consistent.  It has to become habit.

            Similarly, we get into the habit of turning to God when we do it over and over and over again.  Things go good?  Things go bad?  Things are confusing?  Things are going according to plan?  We turn to God in each instance.  If it helps to develop the habit, we could even make it the same time of day or the same physical space or the same passage.  The “how’s” are less important than actually making it happen.

            Overwhelmed is coming.  Overwhelmed will spring out of nowhere to blow up our lives.  When it does, there is a lifeline that we have.  Our hope, our refuge, our rock.

A moment to reflect:

How can you make turning to God a habit?