A Place of Insecurity

After I started a new job, I began a search to find the best route to work. (You have to do this in a major metropolitan area with lots of traffic!) I tried several routes and then remembered a little-used back road which provided lots of greenery and no traffic for a few miles. Although I'd been on this road many times over the years, it's not one that I used with any regularity and not for quite a while. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this route during my morning commute...for a while. Then one morning something happened.

I was driving along (I'm sure my mind was wandering) when suddenly all I saw around me were trees, overgrown brush, and the road. There were no familiar landmarks and no cars around. It was just me in my car, the road ahead of me, and all these trees. I had absolutely no idea where I was. Panic rose inside me. I became fearful as I looked around and tried to reorient. Where was I? I tried to remain calm and kept driving in hopes that I would eventually remember where I was. Very soon afterward I arrived at a place where the road intersected with two other roads. To my relief, I finally remembered where I was. The whole experience probably lasted no longer than 15 or 20 seconds. Nevertheless, it was disconcerting and unforgettable.

There was another time when I was a child and found myself separated from my family in a store. I don't remember a lot of details about that incident, but I do recall a similar panic coming over me until my family found me. After that incident my mom always gave me a specific place where I could go should that happen again—a place for us to rendezvous. I was assured that should I become separated again, she would always go to that place to look for me. Thankfully I never got lost like that again, but I always remembered the plan and it gave me a sense of peace.

Life can sometimes be like these scenarios. We can be tooling along when all of a sudden panic sets in. How did I get here? I'm all alone! What should I do? Perhaps an unfortunate incident sets off these emotions or we've simply wandered into (or been pushed into) an unfamiliar path. We feel threatened by unfamiliar surroundings. Everything seems cozy when we are in familiar places, but if we're suddenly plucked out of the familiar, insecurity sets in.

Thankfully, as believers, God has already given us a place to rendezvous when we find ourselves in these unfamiliar surroundings. We can go to Him in prayer and we can read His Word. He will be faithful to meet us there. There is nowhere that God is not.

Psalm 139:7-12 tell us that God is omnipresent:

I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
    but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
    Darkness and light are the same to you.


I'm so thankful that whatever circumstance I may be in, God is always there. I can keep my eye fixed on Him. God is way better than GPS.