Where is your refuge?

My morning routine [usually] looks very similar on a day-to-day basis, even on the weekends. Part of that routine involves some time in the Word. One particular resource I use during this time is the InTouch Ministries Daily Devotions, which I receive in magazine form. Last Monday's subject was Encouragement in Every Season, and the associated Scripture was Psalm 62:5-8. The devotional from Dr. Stanley focused on how God is faithful, He will do exactly what He says, He is more than adequate to meet our every need, He is always with us...you know, some fairly standard truths. One particular quote I found helpful, right at the very end of the devotional, was this:

“Difficulties may cause us to question God’s dependability. But if we’ll place our trust in our omniscient, omnipotent Father, we can begin each morning with a fresh sense of His faithfulness, which will carry us through the day."

I believe I have experienced enough life to know that to be true for myself. If I may, though, I want to speak to the passage of Scripture itself in the way that it came off to me when I read it. For reference, here it is:

⁵ My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
⁸ Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.            Selah.        (Psalm 62:5-8 NASB)

David starts this Psalm in the first verse by making a statement: "My soul waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation." I find it interesting how in verse 5, as we see above, that he seems to be reminding himself that yes, indeed, you need to wait for God: He is where your hope comes from. It's probably fair to say that we need to remind ourselves of this regularly. I know I do. It is all too easy to get caught up in the things of the world. It is too easy to feel hopeless today. Not to sound cliché, but all you have to do is turn on the news. Remembering that God is our hope, that He is our stronghold, that in Him, we cannot be shaken...remembering this is paramount to surviving, especially from a mental standpoint.

What really grabbed my attention, though, was verses 7 and 8. "My refuge is in God." What is a refuge? According to Merriam-Webster, it is... 

1. shelter or protection from danger or distress
2. a place that provides shelter or protection
3. something to which one has recourse in difficulty 

God is our Creator. He knows all things. He is everywhere at once. He is all-powerful. He is so many things, and He is also our shelter from danger. He is our protector. He is our source of help in times of difficulty. When trouble comes, we can run to Him. No matter what. He is always waiting for us with open arms. We see this time and again in Scripture. Even if we are responsible for our own trouble, He still will be there for us when we decide to come home to Him. Just read the parable of the prodigal son. God's love for us is unconditional: it doesn't matter what we've done or what we're facing. We can always find refuge in Him. But if you're anything like me, you tend to forget this, often times in moments when you need God the most. And then you choose to run to someone else, or something else. Only God can fully satisfy. Plus, finding genuine refuge in Him doesn't have the possibility of further negative outcomes. Depending on what you substitute for God, you can all too easily find yourself in a cycle of unnecessary misery.

God calls to us to pour out our hearts to Him. Only He knows us well enough to take our outpourings and cause us to see ourselves for who we really are, which is who He says we are. At the end of the day, what God thinks of you is all that matters. Why wouldn't we want to run to Him for refuge in times of hardship? He is omni-everything-good. So why do we choose to take refuge elsewhere? I cannot answer that question for everybody. Some days, I don't think I could even answer that for myself. I don't want to simplify it by saying "we're human," though that is, naturally, true. One of the most frustrating things in life has got to be knowing what you should do, but not doing it (or knowing what you should not do, but doing that anyway). We think that doing what feels good for a moment will be enough to numb the pain. But it never is. We need a God who heals us, a God who sees us exactly for who we are and knows exactly how to care for us. He can certainly work through other people to help us, but if we're not doing our part of actually seeking Him, we're going to miss out on His best for us. We may even go down a path we never intended to walk.

When you find yourself in times of trouble, seek refuge: seek God. I promise you that running to anything else will only leave you wanting.

Everything as Planned

If you know me somewhat, you should probably know that I am a fairly musical person. I not only enjoy listening to a lot of music, but I can also play a few instruments (if we have been acquainted at some point and somehow you did not come to know this, I apologize most sincerely for not sharing this with you, and we should probably grab coffee or something). That being said, I am pretty open to various types of music. I enjoy some more than others, and definitely am not a fan of yet still others.

Two genres of music that I have really enjoyed listening to in recent years are symphonic metal and melodic metalcore. I only listen to a few bands that fit within these genres, but I thoroughly enjoy the music put out by those bands. Just to quickly summarize, symphonic metal typically features an operatic female voice and combines orchestral-style music with harder rock/metal styles. Melodic metalcore also includes elements of obvious hard rock/metal styles (awesome electric guitars, double-bass drumming, etc.) as well as 'melodic' elements of keyboards, synthesizers, and sometimes orchestra-like sounds/instruments. It also features clean vocals (normal singing, if you will) and unclean vocals (probably known to most of you as 'screaming' or 'growling'). Perhaps that last bit causes you to question the validity of the genre actually being 'music.' That's alright. I can see your argument, but I hope that we can agree to disagree on that issue. I like it, and that's all that matters.

Recently, I have been listening to an album from a melodic metalcore band called We Came As Romans (WCAR). I first started listening to them during my freshmen year of college, and have since really come to enjoy their style. The band is all about loving other people. On their website, guitarist Joshua Moore says, "Love doesn't have an argument; everyone wants to love and be loved. We decided if we were going to be a band, we needed to have meaning behind it. And I don't think there is any greater meaning than to keep on spreading the idea and concept of love." That hit home with me, and has given me a new appreciation for their lyrics. Their latest album, Understanding What We've Grown to Be, deals largely with life's struggles and the many challenges we face. As I was listening through the album on the way to work in recent weeks, the second song, Everything as Planned, struck a chord within me that I just could not leave untouched.

Feel free to read through the full lyrics for this song, but, generally speaking, Everything as Planned talks about how we try to plan out our lives but find that, often, life does not go how we originally intended. It speaks of laying awake at night wondering how things would have went if they went according to plan. The song also speaks of how the songwriter learned that without properly taking care of himself, he could never truly take care of anyone else.

The writer of this song conveys that he has "built and rebuilt" the bed that he lays in at night, but always ends up "restless in the same place." I saw this as representing life in the way that sometimes, we try to do things one way, but then things happen another way, and we feel lost and confused because things have not gone our way. We find ourselves in a place of not knowing which way to go.

I am not completely sure of the direction that WCAR was trying to take with this song, but the lyrics hit me in such a way that simply has to ring true for many people. We try to live our lives out according to some plan. But, so many times, we have no control over what happens. We lose a job, lose a loved one, create an awkward relationship...the list goes on. As a result, we sometimes return back to square one and attempt to rebuild, but we end up "restless in the same place" time after time because we truly do not have ultimate control. That is why full surrender to the Lord is so important. As humans, our plans will fail at some point. Guaranteed. That is why surrendering and trusting fully in the Lord to guide you through the ups and downs of life is so crucial.

Additionally, during the course of our lives we may feel the need to help and care for others along the way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but if we are not nurturing ourselves in such a way that brings us closer to the Lord and keeps us healthy, spiritually and physically, we will never be able to truly care for the other people in our lives in the most effective way possible.

If we lay in bed at night and simply mope about how everything would be if it would just go as we planned, we are in for a miserable and draining life. Get closer with the Lord: read your Bible, get on your knees and pray, worship him through song...whatever it takes. He will lead you through anything and will never leave nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He also knows everything about your life (Psalm 139:16). Let the plan to Him, and live as He wants you to live. You will have no need to vacillate in a pit of worry, and you will be able to be a better blessing to others.

Possible, Not Easy

Wow, it has almost been a month since my last post. My apologies, but I have an entirely good reason for putting off this post for so long.  With the exception of this week (thus far), much of my time has been spent working on a project for my Database Applications course.

On a high level, this project, the Intelligent Water Management System project (or simply IWMS), is a three-year contracted project for World Vision through my school. The basic end goal of the project is to create a web application that receives data from water pumps in Africa and allows it to be displayed and worked with in a sensible fashion. I could definitely go into more details, but that is not my purpose for today.

My class and my major's capstone course (which I will be taking next spring) started working on the IWMS project in February and are to have a primitive version of the application working by the end of the semester this May. Two Saturdays ago until the following Tuesday, I personally put in somewhere between 10-20 hours on a database-related issue for the application. Needless to say, it was a very tiring few days. In the end, the issue was resolved and other tasks were subsequently accomplished. However, the road to the end of the problem was very discouraging.

That Saturday night/Sunday morning and Sunday night/Monday morning (each night/early morning ending at about 1:30am) felt like absolute wastes of time and that I was getting nowhere. In retrospect, the 5-6 hours spent across those two days did result in a little bit of progress, but it was not until I decided to get help the following Monday afternoon from my professor that things turned around for the better. After visiting my professor, we worked out a solution in about 20 minutes that I was trying to accomplish for the previous 5-6 hours. While this was indeed a huge relief, I was a little disappointed in the seemingly unnecessary extra amount of time I put into this task.

Later that week, a great friend of mine (who was my freshman roommate, is my current RA, and will be one of my future apartment-mates next year) was talking about how he is seeing God move in regards to his duties as the Student Body Chaplain next year. He said something that gave me a fresh perspective on life: "Faith makes life possible, not easy." While my situation was not directly a faith-based battle, I earnestly believe that the entirety of it all demonstrates faith in the Christian life rather well. I struggled for a relatively long time on a particular issue, but it was not until I surrendered to the reception of help that I ultimately achieved victory. The end goal that I was trying to accomplish was indeed possible, but it was definitely not easy. However, it seemed impossible until I reached for something beyond my own strength and abilities.

In our daily life, we will face many difficult situations. As believers and followers of Christ, we have the opportunity to put our faith in a God who never fails, who will never leave us or forsake us, and who is always looking out for us. In the midst of our difficulties, we need to remember to have faith in Him who makes our life possible. Faith will not necessarily make our circumstances easier, but we can rest in God's omnipotence and omniscience and know that He will make our lives possible and that He will lead us through it all.

God cares about every detail of our lives (Luke 12:7); no matter what kind of a situation you face, bring it to God and have faith that He will lead you through the mess. He is faithful and true, and He will never let you down. Time spans may differ, but God will ultimately guide you to the end, every single time.

In Times of Hardship

Let's face it: this life is not a cakewalk. Some days are easier than others, of course, but there are always the inevitably tougher periods of time that have the potential to drain all traces of life out of you. Sometimes we are faced with extremely busy schedules where it seems as if we will never finish the never-ending task list on time. Other times we find ourselves in the midst of drastic life changes that have seemingly spawned from nowhere. Then there are the times when we experience tragedy and heartbreak and struggle miserably to try to put the pieces back together. The last of these three things can be especially difficult if they happen to come to mind in later years around the time of the original incident; experiencing even a little bit of the original sorrow is never enjoyable.

Through experiencing all of these things myself at one time or another, or by experiencing them with someone else, I have learned two very important lessons. The first is that no matter what happens, God will never forsake us and is always ready to receive us in a loving embrace to take away the pain, the fear, the worry... Christ dying for us proved the ultimate, unconditional love He has for us, and He desires for us to lean on Him and to take His yoke upon us. Christ offers us rest, comfort, peace, and everlasting love in all situations we experience. By placing our full trust in the Savior of the world, we can know that everything will turn out okay, even if current circumstances seem to suggest otherwise.

The second lesson I learned is that in addition to trusting in God, it is highly beneficial to have friends and family that you can turn to at any time for help and encouragement, no matter the experience. Suffering hardship alone is possibly the most difficult way to live through that tough time. Having a fellow human being that you can turn to can be a huge source of comfort. Being a shoulder to cry on or simply being a voice to talk things out can go a long way. Even answering your phone just for the sake of answering it so that the person on the other end can feel some kind of comfort in their distress through the mere sound of your voice can be more than enough in that moment. We were created to live relationally: we need to have each other's backs no matter what the situation. One simple expression of love, compassion, and care at a particular moment during a rough experience can make all the difference in a person's life.

There are many times in this life when we will feel weak and weighed down by the burdens that we face. It is important to remember, however, that Christ has you covered at all times. I really like the way the bridge of Elevation Worship's Give Me Faith puts it:

I may be weak, but Your Spirit's strong in me
My flesh may fail, but my God You never will

No matter what we are facing, we can always count on God to pull us through. It is also incredibly helpful to have trustworthy friends who are willing to encourage you, suffer along aside of you, and pick you up when you fall. The power of love can go a long way. Do not choose to suffer alone: rest in the love of Christ and be thankful for the friends and family in your life who will not abandon you when you need their company the most.