What is your happy place? For me, it’s a lakeside cabin in Temagami, Ontario where I spent my summers growing up like Davy Crockett. (I’ve even saved my trusty hunting/whittling knife from those days.) Others may find their happy place in a more urban setting, like a local cafe or in the magic of Disney World.
We are, more than ever, a society of wanderers, living among strangers, which can become unsettling. As families get smaller, and are often separated by too many long miles to travel, it’s easy to feel restless and even disoriented.
In our transient times, we need more than ever to rediscover a home for our hearts, and the safest place I know is God’s heart. More than one child has explained to me their connection to God by saying, “God asked me into his heart.” The old hymnist also penned this concept in these words: “There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God.” This is a safe place like no other on earth. In Isaiah an invitation is given,
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
Isaiah 30:15
We remain strangers to others and to ourselves when we seek our home outside of the centre, Jesus Christ. Perhaps we will look to our politicians, our economic systems, our technology, or our religion. Each of these places, in some way, have failed to provide us with security. Or we might find comfort in a number of over indulgences, which only leave us needing to diet or therapy.
The security our hearts need is found in God. To find that safety, we must have what one person called “naked trust,” which means God, plus nothing else, is holding on to our lives. In Proverbs we are instructed to guard our hearts. This practice of guarding goes two ways: guard the treasure of God’s Word in your heart; and that Word will also guard you.
My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Prov. 4: 20-23
