Refuge Isle

"But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all You do." Psalm 73:28

I own an island.

Well, sort of.

Okay, it doesn't really belong to me. But I go there all of the time and ponder life and study God's word and let Him speak to me. And, somehow, despite all of the sounds that I hear around me, I've heard Him more clearly there than almost anywhere else. There is a quiet there that has nothing to do with my ears- it's a quietness of heart.

The only problem about my island is that I need it all of the time....and I can't take it with me. Even Mary Poppins never carried around an island in her magic carpetbag.

I keep finding myself saying, "If I just had -------, I'd be okay." Depending on my current emotional state, the blank is filled with all sorts of things, but the point is that I'm never at rest. Because usually when I get -------, then I desire -------, and so on and so forth. It's an endless, vicious cycle.

A long time ago, I named my little island "Refuge Isle," for obvious reasons. And it's the first thing that came to mind when I read Psalm 73:28 the other day. It was then that I realized that my beloved Refuge Isle is nothing more that a beautiful pile of grassy dirt in the middle of a murky body of water. The only thing that makes it a refuge is that, whenever I'm there, I allow my mind to be quieted by the calming presence of my Prince of Peace.

After I figured this out, I kicked myself, (no, not really,) and tried to decide how to make God my refuge the way the Psalmist did, because I'm always getting so distracted. That's when I noticed verses 21-22 of the same Psalm:

"When I became embittered and my innermost being was wounded, I was a fool and didn't understand; I was an unthinking animal toward You."

That sounds way too familiar.

After I kicked myself again, I kept reading:

"Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand."

I, the unthinking animal, am still always with my God? He's still holding my hand? I, the fool, still have the privilege of abiding in the shadow of the Almighty and resting in His arms on Refuge Isle?

Absolutely. All it takes is my wholehearted decision to run to His waiting arms.