Desired Haven

By Pat Russell

Yesterday I fell. You know how you think you are on level ground and you step off one level only to find yourself going down? I did that in our garage. I hit the front of the car and then the floor with my knees. I rolled over onto the floor and laid there a bit, gathering my wits about me. Slowly I got back up assessing the damage. None to the car; none to my body except a bright red “strawberry” on my left knee. That was an external evaluation.

Internally I was shook up. The jarring seemed to reverberate throughout every part of my body – my muscles, my joints, even my head which did not hit anything! All the energy that I had for yesterday seemed to have poured out on to the garage floor. The rest of the day I moved slowly and deliberately through my activities, and I was very glad to get into bed at an early hour. Today I ache but am fine. I just feel like taking it easy.

Shocks to our systems, they happen. It might not be a fall, but it could be a medical report you did not expect or someone you love dying or an unexpected rejection or a job loss or a pandemic. Boom! It is upon you. You assess your current being, make adjustments and then move on. But something has changed, and you feel it throughout your soul.

I read this the other day, Psalm 107:26-30. It’s about sailors in ships.

“They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits end.

"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.”

I find these words so comforting. I think of Jesus calming the seas when his disciples were “falling.” I am taking a deep breath this morning, resting in my comfort chair, being “glad because ‘I’ have quiet and he has brought me to my desired haven this day.” And you?