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One of the things about writing for others is that God will inevitably make sure you get the opportunity to test what you’ve written – before, during or after you say it. Several weeks ago I wrote of Harriet Beecher Stowe and how our life changes when we realize that God is truly in everything – all the mundane details of our lives, the upsets, the mishaps, the overturned schedules, the busyness – you get the point. I know it struck a nerve because so many of you wrote of how this simple truth ministered to you.
There are still eight of us living together here and the chaos continues, so when I got an email from my friend Derrith offering her house for a week while they were gone, I was determined to find a way to take her up on it. Derrith and Evan, their two boys and two dogs live in a gorgeous home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The master bedroom with its wall to wall, floor to ceiling window looks out on luscious green woods and it is only a short walk to the Willamette River. (I won’t even begin to tell you about the Jacuzzi tub with the same view…) The idea of the beauty and serenity, not to mention the escape from San Diego’s oppressive August heat, was more than I could bear, so within a matter of hours I’d booked our flights and our plans were set.
A few Saturdays later we spent the day traveling a circuitous route to Portland, then hired a shuttle for the half hour drive to our wondrous hideaway. As we arrived I noticed a car in the driveway and all the house windows open, which was very strange since they had left the day before. Actually, turns out they hadn’t left, which we discovered as Derrith walked out the front door. I don’t know who was more shocked – her or us, as we stood there like vagabonds surrounded by all our luggage. Don’t know how the wires got crossed, but their family wasn’t leaving for two more days and on top of that, they had company staying with them so there was simply ‘no room in the inn.’ We immediately started trying to book a hotel, but there was some big football game in town and nothing was available anywhere within a 30 mile radius. Well, almost nothing. We did find one room left in the local hotel so we nabbed it, although I could tell Derrith was none too excited for us. When we checked in, I understood why. With a marvelous parking lot view, and the smell of Lysol filling our lungs, we collapsed on the double bed as our ‘restful’ getaway began.
A couple of days later we’d finally settled into Derrith and Evan’s beautiful home and as I sat in bed the first morning, drinking my coffee and enjoying the scenery, the Lord began to speak to me about the whole fiasco. I felt fairly certain I was to share it with you so I grabbed my trusty laptop and began to write – slowly and peacefully pondering the message on my heart. Then, as I picked up my coffee to take a sip, the cup broke right off the handle. Crashing down, the scalding hot liquid splattered all over the computer, my legs and the bed I was sitting on. In shock I started screaming for Joe as I peeled the coffee-drenched pajamas from my steaming legs.
I spent the rest of that day sitting with a bag of frozen peas on my thighs, washing and changing mountains of bedding and trying in-between to get my computer to dry out, hoping it might work again. All’s well that ends well, I suppose, because in the end, I didn’t blister, all the bedding came clean and over the course of a couple of weeks and the help of a friend, my computer limped back to life (with the exception of the letter ‘j’, which I have to pound really hard to make it work).
So what was the message that had burned so heavily on my heart? (no pun intended) Simply put, that as much as God is a very present help and true companion through the busyness and chaos of our days, we still need those times when we can pull away to recoup, regroup and restore our souls. In a perfect world, that would be a daily thing, and something to surely strive for. But when the circumstances of life make that impossible, as mine have so often these past few months, the next best thing is to sprinkle little getaways across our days. While we’ll rarely have the luxury of a week in a woodsy hideaway, the truth is that it’s entirely possible to reclaim the wonder of God’s peaceful presence in relatively small chunks of time – 30 minutes or an hour, or if we can get it – a morning away.
This was what I was going to share when that illustrious cup of coffee came crashing down on me. The next day I was whining to Joe about how I was trying to write a devotional about getting alone with the Lord and circumstances were thwarting me at every turn, even when I'd planned this trip for that very reason. With the simplicity only a man can bring to a massively complex situation, he said: “That’s the thing – it’s always going to be a fight.” And I knew right then that this was the heartbeat of what I needed to know and to share. Simply put – finding a way to enjoy unfettered time in God’s presence is always going to be a fight. It’s a fight with our own flesh, a fight with a world system that has deified busyness, and a fight with the enemy of our souls, who hates anything that enhances our intimacy with Christ.
And because it’s a fight, we’re going to have to be warrior-like in our efforts with the whole thing. If we don’t, our best intentions will get away from us, and before we know it, it will be days or weeks without even short breaks to care for our soul. And we’ll feel it to the core of our beings as our stress level rises, petty irritations become life crises, the people we love become impositions and we fall in bed exhausted, able only to mouth a dutiful prayer, hoping for enough grace to go through the whole thing all over again the next day.
I’ve been home from our little escapade in Oregon for two weeks and this is the first time I have had to even try to write this devotional, so I know what a precious commodity time is. But every time I’ve had to pound the letter ‘j’ on my computer, I've been reminded that there is a fight of faith I must be willing to wage. With a sort of righteous anger, I am more determined than ever to find those special times with the Lord. And if you’re in one of those seasons of sacred chaos, I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Take a few minutes this week to plan a lovely little getaway with Jesus – just you and Him. It might be thirty minutes some evening after dinner or a Saturday morning when the kids are in sports, or a lunch break at work. The key is to make a plan. Decide when you can do it and for how long, and then guard that time with your life. Do whatever it takes to leave the noise and the endless responsibilities of life behind, and fight the good fight to recoup, relax and refresh with the Lord who always receives you with open arms. And when the opposition comes (and it will), let it make you even more determined to go after this. It’s going to be a fight, but worth every minute in battle as you gain the prize of God’s precious presence restoring your soul.
In Christ,
Tricia
P.S. We start our final quarter of 'Living Loved' in a little over a week. If you haven't looked at it in a while, you might want to go back to this quarter's passage and spend some time taking in all the things God has taught you!. Click here to go to the “LIVING LOVED 2009” Challenge page, where you will find the passage and all the tools!