Series: Flowers in the Desert
Psalm 32:7-8 ESV
When life gets prickly I tend to run.
Mind you, I don’t run because I’m afraid.
I run because I’m older and I’ve learned that peace matters more than just about anything else on the planet.
I’ve learned that my favorite place (God) is worth fighting for.
Psalm 32:7-8 tells us, “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
Recently, God gave me a great gift.
I was sitting with a few new people I’ve not known for long. Two other people entered and the conversation slightly shifted.
One person from each group got up and went to another room nearby and soon I heard the tone of their voices change. Even though I couldn’t hear what was being said, I could tell the conversation shifted from funny to prickly.
That’s when the conversation shifted significantly to divide and conquer.
I’ve studied group communication dynamics both in communication and in a church setting. I know enough about it to realize that most of the time nobody wins.
That’s because very few people play the part of negotiator.
The name of the game divide and conquer is strictly based on numbers. The group with the most players wins.
The problem I’m faced with is that I like everyone in both groups. Unless someone openly and vehemently attacks me personally I pretty much like everyone. When I was a newspaper editor years ago in a small town I learned that there is good and bad in everyone and instead of playing their game I choose happy.
I choose funny.
I discovered that being 4’11” tall and funny has definite advantages. I mean, seriously who is going to attack a very short happy funny person?
The disagreement that recently occurred did not involve me.
I was not the target.
So, I chose to make a polite exit.
I chose my hiding place. My hiding place became my ‘go to’ place years ago when God taught me that I do not have to take sides. I do not need to engage. I can choose to love everyone and I do not have to choose a side.
See, I learned that most of the time when I think about it I can see good and bad merit in both arguments. In suppose that’s because in argumentation and debate you have to learn both sides of every argument. Because I can often see good in both sides (and bad) I choose God.
I choose peace.
I choose to turn to God for deliverance.
In Psalm 32:7 we learn we can choose peace. We can choose deliverance. We only need to open our hands to receive it from God.
Then…Selah.
There’s that wonderful pause again. It’s a wonderful pause of forever peace we are promised.
Then the psalmist in Psalm 32:8 makes a magnanimous promise.
God promises when we stop and open our hands to the Lord, we can receive instruction. God offers to teach us the way to go. We do not need to struggle…we only need to surrender.
Then a second promise is given that is even more fetching.
God promises to counsel us as the eyes of God remain firmly stayed ‘on’ our heart.
I am reminded about a younger ‘me’ who didn’t know or understand how to recognize the prickly and how to gently walk away.
When I was a younger ‘me’ I bought a book. Then I watched a movie and I bought another book. I became fascinated with Corrie Ten Boom and the woman she became as a result of great suffering and sorrow. I read everything she wrote over and over again. Her simple straight-forward words spoke eons to me. In The Hiding Place she wrote, “That’s why he (God) sometimes shows us things, you know- to tell us that this too is in His hands.”
I was reminded today after the prickly conversation that God was showing me that even the prickly is in His hands.
Today I walked away smiling as I entered God’s wonderful hiding place where peace reigns forever. Selah.
Spiritual Practice: the hiding place
Take time to go to God’s hiding place of peace.
In God, Deborah