Refuge

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September 3

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024

Getting started is hard.

I suspect I am not alone. A long weekend that includes a holiday makes for a great escape from the norm. Mine was a little extra because Jo & I went to Ohio to watch our grandson play high school football on Friday night. After lunch with him on Saturday, we went back to the hotel room and basically vegged. We got together with Janna and Mike Saturday night and ate Mexican. After attending church with some long time friends on Sunday morning, we had lunch with them and then headed back home. I believe I chose correctly to come home Sunday and not wait until Monday. Monday, Labor Day, I went to the office to get my week started and then spent several hours in a storage that I want emptied by the time of my knee replacement in November. I made some headway but the holiday was appropriately named: I labored and probably sweat off a few pounds. We are giving away stuff in the storage. FREE always attracts attention. Today and tomorrow I am meeting some folks to get rid of some of that stuff.  I know money can be made but why? It goes much quicker and I avoid the headache of pricing things. Besides, I have been blessed. Why not bless someone else?

But today is another story. I was tired last night when I went to bed. My body was saying, “Why did you do this to me today?” My knee was screaming at me and this morning it continued to whine. Cry baby! Oh, but the coup de grace was the skunk that decided to infiltrate my Mancave and make its way through the house. Did you ever wonder why God made certain animals? Then you remember they like mice and other insects. Do they like moles? They could live off the ones in my yard and never want for food. Then as I was getting my ice water the ice maker decided to overflow all over the kitchen floor. Anyway, you get the picture of my morning. Oh…did I tell you about the section of my drive here to the office that a skunk has decided to call his territory?

Needless to say I was not all that chipper this morning as I made my way to the office. I didn’t even feel like writing this devotion from home. But as God would have it I had started playing a song for Tami last night that we sang on Sunday morning. I didn’t finish but it was in the cue on Spotify when I got in my Pathfinder this morning. Let’s just say it was just what the Doctor ordered for my morning. I heard this song just a few weeks ago when Honor and Glory/Disciple showed up singing this song on Spotify. I had not heard it before even though I understand others have sung it.   Here is the link to the song that slayed me this morning. The lyrics are in the video.  Think about these verses from Psalm 62:6-8- “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. Oh my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.” (NLT)

My prayer is that it encourages you today as it did me.

September 13

Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

I read this morning that as thousands of Ukrainian women and children arrived at Berlin’s railway station fleeing war, they were met with a surprise-German families holding homemade signs offering refuge in their homes. “Can host two people!” one sign read. “Big room [available],” read another. Asked why she offered such hospitality to fleeing strangers, one woman said her mother had needed refuge while fleeing the Nazis and she wanted to help others in such need. (Source: Our Daily Bread-9/13-Sheldon Voysey author)

The word refuge stood out to me as I read that story. I think of a refuge as a place to hunker down during a storm. There have been times I have been out riding my bike when a storm has hit unexpectedly (and I was trying hard to beat it). Out of necessity I have ridden in a misty rain or a steady rain (Getting from Point A to Point B), all the while looking for a place to get out of the rain. But a storm? I look for the first porch, first barn, first roof, first covered inset of a building to (hopefully) wait out the storm.

Multiple times in the book of Psalms we read the word refuge. Here are a few:

Psalm 2:12- “Kiss the Son…Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”

Psalm 5:11- “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice…”

Psalm 7:1- “O Lord my God, in you I take refuge…”

Psalm 11:1- “In the Lord I take refuge…”

Psalm 16:1- “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge…”

Psalm 46:1- “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  (It is reported H.G. Wells once said, “God is an ever absent help in time of trouble.”)

As you can see the verses speaking of God as a refuge are many, and those are just a small handful of verses from Psalms.

Storms come. They know no discrimination. They know no boundaries. We will all experience storms. Some catastrophic; some light. Some inexplicable; some easy to read. What makes a difference is to WHOM we run. In WHOM will we seek refuge? David, the author of most of the Psalms, found his refuge in God.

What about you? Where will you find your refuge?