When I was a freshman in college, I had a paradigm-shifting spring break in my life. It wasn’t because of anything fun or all that interesting but simply because I was enlisted by my dad to help him move, for free, from the home I lived in during high school into a smaller place as he got ready to think about what his next steps would be with me moving out and after a year of enjoying all the trappings of early retirement.
For me, this meant a week of packing boxes, filling the car, and driving 5 minutes down the road to an old farmhouse that my dad was going to rent for a year. It was smaller than our old house and was a sign that I was going to have to find my own place to live soon enough. When I came back that summer to live in the farmhouse, I was met with the stark reality that I no longer had a room of my own but rather had to share a bedroom with 2 extra couches, a few dressers, and countless boxes.
It was that spring break that there was a sense of change in the air. Yes, physically we were changing addresses, but that move signified a shift in my life. What I had known and felt comfortable in was moving right beneath my feet, and all the confusion and change of my freshman year of college was intensified as I asked myself this question, “Where should I go next?”
If we were honest, we have all wrestled with this question in our lives. This question has a mix of hope and opportunity while at the same time a sense of fear and anxiety about the future.
Looking back, I realize how much I longed for stability in that season of change. I searched for answers, but what I truly needed was a reminder of God’s presence. If I could go back and encourage my younger self, I would share this psalm:
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Psalm 46:1-3
What resonates with me when I read this is that the psalmist recognizes the reality that the world can change in drastic ways, and there is a natural desire to cling to fear in these moments. Fear, anxiety, and worry become a security blanket where we feel in control because at least it feels as though we are doing something active, and yet the reality is that clinging to fear provides us no relief.
What we should instead recognize is that God is the relief. He is our refuge, and He is ever-present, and we should run to Him because when your world shifts and the mountains in your life move and change and the waters rage with the changing of the wind, we can find peace from a God who does not move, is ever-present, and will give us peace that only He can provide.
Don’t let fear be your security blanket. Instead, take a step of faith. Lean into God’s unshakable presence, knowing that He is your refuge and strength, today, tomorrow, and always