Have you ever felt like closing out the world and living in isolation for the rest of your life?  I’ve had days like that, especially when I’m fighting a cold and the usual aches and pains of age.  Our world can be an ugly place and we’re enveloped in it.  We see it on our streets.  We experience disrespect in the workplace.  We struggle to make ends meet.  We turn on the news or read  a newspaper and suddenly the raw truth of what our society has become is a brutal reality.  Wouldn’t it be nice to just run away and hide?

That was always my Modus operandi when I was a child.  I would hide in my closet – in the shelter of aloneness.  Somehow that little space became a refuge.  I could shut out the things I didn’t want to face into.  It was quiet, dark and instead of a jail cell, it was where I could think things through and maybe come out a little better.  As I grew older, it became easier to go for a walk or visit someone who was totally detached.  As an adult, my refuge often included trying to laugh it off or hide under the mask of silence.

We all have our ways of handling life, but I’ve found in my many years of living, that there is no place to hide when it comes to God.  He hems us in from every side.  He knows our comings and goings.  He’s aware of our secret thoughts.  This could be frightening, but as you become more and more aware of God’s involvement in your life, you realize that it’s  unconditional love.

Sure, trials will come our way.  God allows them, to bring us in a closer more intimate relationship with Him.  So when you feel like the world is closing in on you, don’t run away from it – run to the One who loves you so much that He gave His only Son to carry all your sins to the cross.  What a friend we have in Jesus.