An Anchor For The Soul
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever. Hebrews 6:19-20
Insight
As a child of the '60s and '70s, I had all the best, especially the music (sorry, Mike, but it was far superior to the '80s). The neighborhood kids played after school until dark - roller-bat, kickball, football, riding bikes, and skateboards. Summer was filled with sprinklers and putting baby oil on us as we lay in the sun with our radios blasting and the kitchen timers on to tell us when to turn over for the most even tan. Of course, Sun-in sprayed on our hair, which turned your hair orange if you had dark hair like mine, but we were part of a do-your-thing generation, so I was too cool to care.
The heaviness of the times were the civil rights movement, anti-war protests surrounding the Vietnam War, the generation gap, the Cuban missile crisis, and the murders of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. As kids, we only heard this history-forming information in small conversations with our parents, and then we go out to live our best lives. The only way we knew what was happening with our friends was through the community time we shared in person. The pace was slow in many ways, but much joy was found in the slowness. Our minds were free to be kids and play. Sometimes I wonder if my need for Jesus was lost in the fact that we were happy just the way we were. Nothing made me desire Him. After all, He might have made the rules harder for me to follow, and I was having fun. He was for when I got older and stopped playing. Why have this life change now when everything was beautiful to me?
Fast forward to 2023. We have all the world, and all its brokenness and messiness, at our fingertips. The second something happens, we get an alert on our news and social media apps. Kids spend much of their day on devices that play with other kids worldwide yet never really have a face-to-face conversation. Because information comes at such a high speed now, we don't even get to respond, understand or lean into what happened two months ago, let alone what occurred 2 minutes ago. Our minds are packed so tightly that it's like looking at a sink full of dishes filled to the ceiling and figuring out which one to grab, hoping the whole pile doesn't fall and break. We are overstimulated, and finding the slow is almost impossible. We fill our need to rest with what we know. We drink, over-medicate, overeat, binge Netflix, and look in all these spaces for relief from the noise. Then, after nights of tossing and turning, since our brains can't stop, we wake up and do it all over again.
The stress and pressure to keep up can send us into a spiral that is impossible to navigate without Jesus. As I stated earlier, I didn't feel the need for that security when I was a child, but it wasn't long before I found my spiral, or should I say, my spiral found me. No one escapes the trouble in this world. Without an anchor, we drift further away from the life we were created for. My attempts to step off the crazy train without Jesus were painful. Wounds and scars are forever part of my physical and mental being.
My pain led me to cry out to Him. He put people in my life to point to Him. He was persistent, and He never walked away from me even though He knew all I had done, and even more incredible, He knew my broken and wounded heart. When I reached out, He was waiting. Without Him, my life would be full of me trying to survive, and my scars would be the roadmap to my ultimate destruction.
But Jesus used my self-inflicted pain to see Him. It led me to reach for Him, and what I encountered was a beautiful, loving, and deeper expression of the rest and security that I ever knew. Jesus wants to enter into the messy parts on our behalf and use them to create the person we are made to be.
He is our rest, and we can't find rest without Him, believe me, I tried all the ways. He is the firm and secure place that our soul needs to survive. I am grateful for the pain that brought me to Jesus. My scars tell a story that points others to Jesus. He is the hope behind the curtain on our behalf to bring us to a victorious life. He is the only way to get there and is just waiting for you to reach out to Him.
Reflection
How can Jesus use your pain and doubt to lead you to Him?
Where must your scars become a story of Christ's love, forgiveness, and redemption?
Prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for seeing us and never turning away when we run from You. Help us to recognize Your work in us during difficult times instead of believing that You don't care or don't hear us. Show us how to grow in Your work's quiet seasons and help us share our lives with others when we experience Your rest from our pain. You desire to have a relationship with us even in our despair. You aren't overwhelmed with our pain, anger, and even doubt. Our doubt doesn't cause You to be disappointed in us, and for that we are so grateful. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.
Cindy Stauffer, Administrative Assistant at our Wilmington Campus, wrote today's devotional.