I have benefited a LOT from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. Here is a great TED Talk David gave on “Stress-free Living.” I hope you enjoy it.

When I was a kid I ran away from home for over a week. Well, I would come home at night and sometimes in the middle of the day if I got hungry, but I did run away. Every day I would get up, wrap a bandana around my head like a pirate and then load some snacks and whatnots into another bandana and tie it on a stick like a hobo. Then I would march out in to the woods. I was a hobo pirate living in the woods of Alabama. I only went about half a mile from home, but internally I was in another place, in another world. I was on an adventure. I was free.

The impulse to run away is universal. We long for a place to go to get away from it all.

Two weeks ago during my prayer time I began to focus God’s promise to be my rock, my fortress, my hiding place. I am an adult now; I can’t run away like I did as a child. But I have found a place to hide.

The Bible speaks of this hiding place as “being under the shadow of the Almighty.” I like that. The pressure screams out, the waves roar, and the God who is at peace speaks to me, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.”

Even in the hardest, the darkest times, His presence sustains. There is a powerful scene in the movie “The Hiding Place”, where Corrie Ten Boom’s sister is about to die and she tells Corrie she must survive and tell others, “no matter how deep it is, He is deeper still.”

My first sermon, I was 16 years old, was titled, “The pause that refreshes.” I used the story of Samson in the temple of Dagon, his hands against the two pillars and he prayed for strength one last time (Judges 16). Broken and spent, betrayed, blinded, and beaten, Samson finds in prayer “a pause that refreshes.”

I shut out the noise and the pressure by going into my hiding place. And there I pray until I have the peace of God. This is what the old saints called “praying through.”

There is a lot of talk these days about people “coming out of the closet.” I for one think we Jesus Followers need to get back into the closet: to the place of divine exchange, where we exchange our weakness for His strength, our emptiness for His fullness, our barrenness for His fruitfulness, and our inability for His ability.

The promise remains, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30, ESV)

Pray though my friend. Pray until the peace of God floods your heart and mind. Hide under shadow of the Almighty because whatever is over your head is still under His feet. There is for you a secret place and a pause that refreshes.

A few days ago a dear friend of mine sent me the note below. I asked for their permission to post it here. They were kind enough to say yes. I know this person well. These are powerful lessons learned about life, love, and forgiveness along a hard path. I hope it helps you too. JR

I think a lot about forgiveness and God’s command that we forgive others. ( Matthew 6:14-15 NIV, For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.) Many times I have wondered how to completely let go of hurt. For years I claimed to have forgiven my dad for all of his shortcomings, however, in the back on my mind there was always the thought, “I forgive him, but I really wish things had been different.” Seeing someone have the kind of relationship with their dad that I always wanted always made me a little jealous. Fearing that I had not completely forgiven him, or that some bitterness may lie in my heart over it, I felt I needed to look at things from a different perspective. (Hebrews 12:15, “Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many”) I have always believed that it is possible to find something good in everything, but in this instance, perhaps I had not fully applied that principle. After doing so, this is a very short list of some of my insights:

We were poor: It taught me to be a hard worker.

My dad was physically abusive to my mother: It taught me what kind of guy “not” to marry.

My mom felt trapped in a bad marriage with no money to leave: It taught me to develop my own income and to provide for myself.

My father was an alcoholic, got trashed, played guitar and sang out of tune: It taught me how not to act when I was drinking!!!!! – well at least not to play guitar. Seriously though, I do think of how important it is not to let alcohol control your life and ultimately destroy you.

And the list goes on. This simple act seemed to lift the resentment instantly. This led me to another Bible verse. Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

If I were to make a list of every need I wanted my dad to fill, like being my financial advisor for example (not that I have a need for that, but you get the point), I can name someone God has placed in my life to fill that very need. Not an individual, but several men, ranging from my husband, my brothers, friends and even a boss or two. Once the responsibility of my dad meeting my needs according to my vision of the way it was suppose to be was removed so was any resentment towards him for not doing so. It also opened my heart to see him with more empathy and to understand he did the best he could with what he was given. I hurt more for him now that I ever did. I wish he could have realized his full potential and successfully battled the demons that eventually destroyed him.

I hope I can take what I learned here and apply it in other areas of my life. We live in a fallen world and therefore, people will always hurt you. I just need to remember to “Let Go and Let God.”