Today's Devotional
June 2, 2006
Subject: Running For Your Life
Psalms 61:2 - "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I."
The carnage in Iraq just seems to go on and on and on. News reports indicate that there has been a huge exodus of the middle class. These are the people who can afford to leave the area and this is what they've done to protect the lives of their loved ones. I was in an email dialogue one day with one of my former Iraqi bodyguards/translators and he told me that he was now in Cairo, Egypt with his family. He is unsure when he will return to Baghdad, his former home.
People in Iraq have it pretty bad these days, but so do we as believers. They are running for their physical lives in Iraq and we are running for our spiritual lives here in America. I don't think we are in a retreat from the culture that surrounds us, it's simply that we've got to get our loved ones to a "safe place." In today's America, you can't let your children walk a few blocks home from school because it is unsafe. In today's America, you can't even leave them in a room in your house alone with a computer because people with evil intentions have found a way to draw them out of the house for their evil misdeeds. However, that's not the worst of it. In today's America, I've watched as kids shows, sports shows, billboards, books and magazines are all used at times to carry the "anti-Christ" message. I'm not talking about The DaVinci Code where it is clearly different than orthodox Christianity. I'm talking about watching my kids in an elementary school talent show and seeing some of the 6, 7 and 8 year-old children do things I won't even let my children watch on TV and I'm in a small town in Texas.
Today, we should be running for our spiritual lives. Men and women alike should be ensuring that we have our families in a safe place. That safe place can't be found in our homes, but in our hearts. That safe place is a "Rock." A "Rock" or shelter that is greater than anything we can provide. We might not be able to protect our families physically at all times, but we can provide spiritual shelter by leading them to The Rock. If they've got that, then although we'd like physical comfort, it really doesn't matter.
