Safe in the den

July 20, 2022 0 1

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Psalm 16: 1-7 (NRSVA)

1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.’

3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble,
    in whom is all my delight.

4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
    their drink-offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names upon my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    I have a goodly heritage.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.

I remember the ‘doggy bush’ at the bottom of our huge garden when I was a child. Made up of two holly trees and a massive rhododendron bush, its outline was reminiscent of ‘Dougal’ from The Magic Roundabout. A fantastic place to play, but especially to hide — to rest from play, to take a break from others.

Running and other sports need not always be non-stop. Trail runners go incredible distances (I’m told!) by walking and resting when needed. Training plans generally incorporate rest days, and ‘cross training’ (such as gym, cycling or swimming), and a ‘taper’ where training reduces in the week or more before ‘race day’.

We all need times of rest, places of refuge, a pause from the hustle and bustle, opportunity to regroup before launching out again. Just as a piece of music contains ‘rests’ that are as important as the notes in between, so our lives need those moments of rest, refuge and sabbath, to give definition and significance to our active, busy lives — and even make them more productive and enjoyable.

Father,
we have our assigned portions, cups
our situations in life.
For some the boundaries fall in pleasant places
while others have more of an existence than a life.
Many may struggle with setting boundaries
between busyness and rest
between work (paid or not) and play
between intensity and time to regroup.

Help us to know
when it’s time to stop
to take refuge
to pause
to rest secure.
And when we need to get going
or to ‘cross train’
to take counsel from you
on the path of life.
Amen.

For our July theme In Good Time we are revisiting past weeks of Daily Worship. Our writers this month are taking us back in time as we meditate on time itself! The piece above originally came from 2019.