Shelter In Place

Psalm 71:1-6

Our church's 57th Annual Luau was held this past Saturday. It's what we call a take-out luau because the luau plates are pre-sold and picked up on a certain date. This take-out luau is the culmination of almost a year's worth of planning, months of concentrated organizing, weeks of finalizing plans, and days of old-fashioned hard work.

I try to be there when we dig the imu (a pit in which we cook food, in this case pigs and sweet potato). I'm also there when we drop the pigs into the imu and take them out. Of course there's a lot more to it than just dropping and removing pigs, but instead of going into the details of everything that's involved I'll simply say that these "work days" are intensive in the amount of physical labor one puts in.

I want to blame the amount of work I do during these work days for the body aches I feel for for about the next week, but in all honesty I have to say it's age. I'm finally comfortable in acknowledging I'm not physically as young as I want to be. However, I have good health and a sharp mind, so I guess it all evens out.

Another labor-intensive duty I took part in this year was the assembly of our take-out boxes. Imagine if you will a gathering of over 100 people working together to assemble 8 different items into a box, 3400 times. It takes a little over 7 hours to complete and when we are done the mental and physical fatigue is astounding. I really don't have words to describe it except to say the rest of the night consists of a hot shower and a very long slumber.

Of course one would not be able to continue for the combined work days without finding the space to rest. Each person has their place to hide - some go into the shade of a large tree to lie on the grass, some find a chair in a breezy hall, others go completely off the church grounds and sit in their air-conditioned cars. Wherever the choice of rest and relaxation might be, one thing is certain: the peace one finds there is extremely welcomed.

The same kind of peace is what I imagine the writer of this Psalm felt while describing the sanctuary of being in God's "fortress". The peace God brings to us when we need a place to take refuge can be just what one needs to escape the daily, and sometimes day-long, pace which our schedules demand. We get very busy going from one place to another, never finding time to just sit and be.

Today, as you go from place to place, trying to finish your daily routines as fast as you can, take a moment to reflect on how much you have to be thankful for. God is waiting for you to say hello and to simply give you a hug and to whisper a kind word in your ear.