Refuge, Beyond Sunday

“LORD, You have been our dwelling place—our refuge, our sanctuary, and our stability—in all generations.”—Psalm 91:1, Amplified

I hate heights. And I don’t particularly have any affection for castles. But there they both were, inviting me in…

… Like just about any week, this one was about unintentional multitasking, when on top of your own to-do list there is the invasion of “need this now” tasks from several somebody else’s to-do list. It is a given in the-cubicle-is-my-home business world, and in just about every world in which you happen to be operating—parent, caregiver, teacher, farmer, delivery professional, chef, or insert your own life here. And in its own weird way, there’s something appealing about wearing the badge of a multitasker who is busy-busy-busy being busy. Until you have this one priority task looming that you know you need to focus on, but time is flying by with busy-busy-busy, and what you fear might be true about wearing that badge really is true:

“Research indicates that multitaskers are actually less likely to be productive, yet they feel more emotionally satisfied with their work, thus creating an illusion of productivity….up to 40 percent of productivity could be lost due to task-switching. It actually takes more time to complete the tasks you're switching between and you make more errors than when you focus on doing one task at a time in order.”—Scott Mautz, inc.com

Time out. Need an escape from all of this. Someplace I can get away from the invasion of “need this now” that feels like relentless waves from a Nor’easter pounding the New England shore. But where? And how?…

…I remember driving through a familiar small town, with its little cubicle-like shops lining the main thoroughfare. Strangely, observing but not interested. Keep driving. And then there they were, right there in the middle of the beautiful New England countryside: three humongous towers. One out of the corner of my eye was a tall, business-like glass skyscraper that I ignored. In front of me, totally out of place, were these tall castle towers that for some strange reason didn’t make my hands sweat at their tallness. Instead, my reaction was like that of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she emerged from the field of sleep-inducing poppies and first saw the Emerald City’s towers: “It’s beautiful!”

And peaceful. And quiet. Not even a breeze. “What are these doing here?,” I asked. And I heard the voice of one of my leaders at work say something a bit odd: “They keep the critters out.” One of the castle towers was connected to a huge building with an even huge-er front lawn of grass and hedges. Without hesitation, I began to bound up the sidewalk…

I hate it when you wake up from a dream just when you’re getting to the good part.

It didn’t take a professional dream interpreter to realize that there might be something to this, of wanting nothing to do with storefront cubicles and to finding a place of safety and escape to focus on my task, and trying to get God's heart in it all. Then, there was this:

“The Name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”—Proverbs 18:10, NIV

Retreats and getaways are great, but often can’t be penciled in to your daytimer. Then what? It's easy to forget in the heat of the day that our good, good Father has re-opened the way to continual fellowship for all who believe, through the sacrifice of Love by His son Jesus Christ, and that in the Name of the LORD, we can go run to His presence as often as we wish.

Anywhere we are, there He is.

He is always home. His presence will always be just as sweet as we found it years ago, or yesterday. The comfortable furniture of Truth and Promise will always be just where they’ve always been. The banqueting table is forever ready for conversation, for listening, for the ultimate hanging out time. Here, the door is always open, but here, the gates of hell cannot prevail—because the Strong Tower “keeps the critters out,” including the ones known as worry, and stress, and insecurity, and false accusation, and distraction.

It is good to remember (and to be reminded often, as I was the next day with headphones tuned to some Up-lifting music, even as multitasking screamed for attention) that when the waves of multitasking of any kind crash in uninvited, the Name of the LORD is a refuge to run to in the midst of it all, and to rethink “going to church” on Sunday as not a one-stop escape from the world with no connection to reality, but to be carried instead as "on earth as it is in heaven" with us into the world of cubicles, and deadlines, and dirty dishes, and heavy traffic.

So be it, LORD, this week, for all who come this way.

"I love to say that not only is the throne room of God a place of reverence, it's always a place of refuge. So when everything else in life seems to be shifting, or breaking and shaking apart, there's a place that is always stable, safe, and constant. When we draw near to God in worship, and approach His throne, we tap into that. It's a very reassuring place, where we're reminded that there's a God on His throne, and even when we don't understand everything, we can trust it to Him."—Matt Redman