Haven Of Rest

Unrest is almost palpable these days.

I look at my children and wonder.

"What am I preparing you for?"

And when I consider current events in the possibilities that flood my mind,

a shiver of fear runs through me.

Unrest.

It's not just for world events.

It seeps into the human heart quietly,

with amazing stealth and staying power.

It is the wordless hovering that follows us

as we do our best to pretend it is not the constant

companion it is.

It is best warded off, not by burying ones head in the sand

(although that is the easiest temporary fix to which I naturally tend towards),

but by the second-by-second decision

to attach our mind, and all the rivers of thought that flow out of it,

to the reality that is as constant and sure as the fact of unrest:

God is a safe place to hide,

 ready to help when we need him.

We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,

courageous in seastorm and earthquake,

Before the rush and roar of oceans,

the tremors that shift mountains.

Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,

God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.

Psalm 46:1, The Message

This week I found a beautiful reminder along this theme of 'rest vs. unrest' in the pages of an old hymnal.Although worded in a way we no longer speak, the words were clear in their promise of a refuge, a Haven of Rest:

I’ve anchored my soul in the “Haven of Rest,”

I’ll sail the wide seas no more;

The tempest may sweep over 
wild, stormy, deep,

In Jesus I’m safe evermore.

Here's to anchoring the soul on Solid Ground...