Psalms 32:7-8 NLT For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
I remember all the games. Monopoly. Operation. Uno. Checkers. Kickball. Baseball. Hopscotch. Red light green light stop. Mother may I. and the likes. But most of all, I remember the game of hide and seek. It was the most annoying of them all. I could never understand. And what annoyed and ticked me off the most was the fact since I was always the youngest, shortest, and the smallest I was supposedly the designated “searcher”. There were many days most participants went unfound, it may or may not have been purposefully.
But here’s the thing, I could never understand this game of Hide and Seek. The goal was to find a hiding place that you could not be found in. Who wants to not be found? Funny how, everyone wanted to hide, and no one wanted to seek.
However, life has had me to think about that for a moment. Life has taught me that there are days and seasons in life where you want to find a hiding place and not be found. Life has taught me also that sometimes the hiding place just so happens to find you. We find our hiding places in shopping, smoking, drinking, sexing, distractions after distraction, working overtime, worrying about what is next, and thinking about tomorrow. Those are all good hiding places but never the BEST hiding places.
Sometimes, just sometimes. In a rare occasion, the hiding place sends an invitation so that you can come and hide. Hide with purpose. So, I have decided to be honest with you. Just short of a month ago, I heard God say, come and go with ME. I had no clue what that meant except that He wanted more of me. Just a few short days after that, as I sat in my therapist’s office crying, she diagnosed me with Overt Severe Depression. Not only Severe Depression, but depression with a side of a little white pill for the next 6 months. You guessed it, I cried even more. After a few days and now weeks later, I have accepted the invitation to the hiding place. I have come to understand that this is God’s hiding place for me to heal and be loved. A beautiful place. A place whereas the Scripture says, songs of victory are sung around me every day all day, because I do have victory over this depression. A place where, I am LOVED by God, kept by God, held tight by God, learning to trust God again, a place where I am in the palm of his right Hand. I am in my hiding place.
So, I am here this day….to extend an invitation…not to depression, but to your Hiding Place in God. A place where He will love you, care for you, and speak direction over you on the best pathway for your life. Invitation extended. Will you accept?
