Mortar shells and rockets…

     At seven-fifteen a.m. in my small portion of the world, I was experiencing an unseasonable cool crisp morning. An ever-slight breeze stirred the surface of the pond that lay a few feet from my small patio. There wasn’t even the chirping of a bird to break my quiet mental wanderings this morning. As I sipped my coffee and watched the slight stirring along the edge of the pond where some of the smaller inhabitants were undoubtedly enjoying breakfast, I had a thought.

    The news right now is so full of unrest, sirens going off, and normal everyday life constantly being disrupted with men throwing rocks, screaming and setting fires to the very neighborhoods they live in.  While sitting on my patio enjoying solitude and peace, it made me wonder where my next thoughts were coming from. What I was thinking of writing to post today certainly wasn’t about rockets and mortar shells.

    Recent news reports from Israel have spoken about having a device that has been intercepting incoming rockets long before they find their target. Thus avoiding damage and possibly loss of lives. As I sat barely able to conceive the thought of outward missiles coming toward me, I thought of other destructive rockets that have been launched in my direction when I’ve least expected them, i.e.  A word, thought, attitude, or even one unsuspecting remark when you least expect it can alter your whole day.

    Because I try not to ever be preachy, I only talk about my personal walk with the Lord if someone initiates the conversation and then I still only share out of what I’ve been given throughout my 42 years as a Christian. That is really all I have to give.

    With the thoughts this morning of how grateful I was that I wasn’t running for shelter due to a siren going off warning me of possible danger I realized that I do have an actual internal warning system. One that has gone off many times in my life and when it does it sends me running into that safe place that has been constructed inside of me.

The righteous run into the Lord and are safe. He is my high tower, my buckler and my strength.

When someone opens the door by asking me how the changes in me over the years have come about and I tell them the ways the Lord has taught me personally, they seem amazed. To me it just became a way of life. I saw very quickly that my internal structure was highly susceptible to incoming attacks.  I learned early on that the Holy Spirit was my warning device. Sometimes I only had a few seconds to heed His warning and run into that safe place in me. The place that I’ve come to recognize is under the shelter of the Lord’s wings. No, I’m not saying that I believe that God has actual wings, but I’ve experienced genuine comfort that those words have painted for me over the years. I’ve run into as real a place that I knew held for me a sense of emotional safety; A place where something actually happens within me. That word or thought being sent to me in that moment is real. It’s coming with a purpose to hurt or depress or cause me to stumble but before it hits its target, which is my heart or mind, the Holy Spirit intercepts it. I see it exploded by the spiritual device in me that brings the Word of God up to meet that thought with what is really the Truth. That weapon is defused, caught in midair and doesn’t prosper toward my life.

Have I always heeded these warnings and avoided being hit? No, sadly I’ve heard the Holy Spirit’s gentle warning and didn’t yield.

    Maybe, like my outward world this morning, someone reading this isn’t experiencing screaming sirens alerting him or her to incoming rockets, but another kind of war is being launched toward them. That’s the thing about this busy world we live in now. You can be in the same room, office, home or even sitting on the same pew and sometimes be too self-absorbed to recognize that another person is under attack.These daily sneaky attacks hurt if they find their mark. They can often alter our whole day. The one thing that I guess was put in my mind this morning to share was how grateful and thankful I am to know where to run in times of danger.

    I know where my safe place is. I know that if I heed the warning, I will be safe. Those assailing thoughts or actions that come by unsuspecting means won’t find their way into my heart. Ah, the heart, that’s another whole blog subject. Maybe for tomorrow. Isn’t it amazing that all the heart is, is a muscle? A pump that keeps our blood flowing and yet it seems also to have a hidden mind that I never was told about in any anatomy class I took.

    When I started back with this blog, I wanted to be faithful to write as I’m led. I hope this encourages someone today that if they are being bombarded and don’t think that there is anywhere to find safety I’m here to tell you, there is. Abiding under the Shadow of the Almighty. But I hope this causes you to see that he’s so much more than the Biblical Deity he can sometimes be presented as being.

   My earthly father never once bent down with open arms, encouraging me to run to him when I was afraid, sad or in need of comforting. It took me years to find a Father who would do that very thing and still does to this day. I might be 65 years in age, but I still need to feel the comfort of a Father’s arms encircling me while reassuring me that any rocket sent in my direction this day will not find its mark.

    If you’re hearing the screaming of personal sirens in your life today, I pray that reading this might encourage you where to run. It really works.