"Refuge.........................."

Late Friday evening a phone-call informed me that, once again, a holiday weekend opportunity was deemed more important than a man’s commitment to ministry. The actual reason for the last minute cancellation, in fact, remains unknown to me and I probably shouldn’t be so quick to voice my opinion, especially when I then, myself, declined the offer of filling the vacancy at the Detention Center. Spur of the moment reasoning told me that the other members of my team, no doubt, already had plans with their families and the look on my wife’s face let me know that she wouldn’t be pleased should I accept, the next two Sundays already inked in on my calendar for church with the kids. Reaching out to others doesn’t mean one abandons responsibilities and affairs of the heart. All day Saturday and the following morning, though, I wrestled on the inside with a mixture of guilt and disappointment, knowing full well that there have been plenty of other times when the same circumstances hadn’t prevented me going. Had I missed a door that God had opened? Did no one else show up to show concern for these youth who, for the most part, have probably known little evidence of anyone caring? Life happens in the act of breathing and we don’t always get the convenience of sitting down to reason things out, of praying through on some individual matter. Nonetheless, He remains faithful, an oasis to which we can return, a fountain of grace and love, a place of rest and restoration…..