SETTLING IN

I so enjoy settling in at night under our comfy quilt on our comfy mattress wrapped in our comfy soft sheets with Asher piled next to me or between us, sighing deeply his contentment. I enjoy settling and snuggling into my Christmas gift down coat and ear-covering hat and lined gloves on our way out the door for a 19 degree morning walk. I like to settle into my car with the seat and heat turned on high. I relish a hot cup of ginger green tea fresh off the stove, a cozy chair and a phone call with a special girlfriend. I like to be settled. It gives me comfort. Security. Rest.

Yet how many are never settled? Hungry stomachs. Unsafe shacks. Untrustworthy neighbors. Dangerous relatives. Poverty, war, today-slavery, abuse. It's too much. What can one person do? But to ask the God of the universe who owns everything, to come. To help. To rescue. To reveal Himself and bow down again to His creation.

I love to piggyback on the work others are doing. To join in the relief efforts and life-building channels they create to help those enslaved in diverse ways. To give a glimpse of hope and pathway to freedom.

Yet still, I often seem to pursue this place of being settled. Even knowing I live with such comfort. Sometimes I find it. Sometimes not. It's when I'm focused on Jesus. Listening to Him in His word. Looking up. Looking outside myself. Yes. That's the place. All else is temporal. Fleeting comfort. So like Paul, I am able to say I am content with plenty or lack, comfort or not, ease or disease. God....