You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah (Psalm 32:7 ESV)When my brother and I were younger – this was pre-video games – we would use furniture, blankets and couch cushions to construct elaborate “bases” where we could hide from the world, and then traverse in and out of these secret bases. As we got older, we grew out of the “bases” we’d created as kids; in an evolution of sorts, we each moved onto the local park, then the school playground, then a friend’s home, then to a school far, far away. Now, the “base” is the office at work, the gym, the bar, the train station at Newark where there is no cell phone coverage, and so on and so forth. We all have hiding places, these bases, that we turn to in search of quiet solace and comfort. These places give us freedom from the pressures of the day and relieve the tensions built up within our minds and hearts. Here’s the problem: very few of us effectively use our hiding places. Moreover, we’re too caught up in our day-to-day to even have time to find refuge. And it is to those of us who are too busy to hide, that I write this morning: you can be hidden anywhere, if you know how. I promise that the following won’t be an advertisement for Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility. If you feel that you are wasting away while quietly suffering the futility of life, and you believe that the only thing you can do is bite your lip, clench your teeth and hope that your grit whisks you away from your predicament; then, you have to find your hiding place: you need to pray! But, you knew that already. You and I both knew that. It’s such the obvious solution, yet neither of us do it. We’re both too engaged with “living life,” and we don’t pray. When we do pray and actively engage God about our inequity and shortcomings, we find that God actively covers them up for us. In His covering up our weaknesses and inequities, we regain strength. Our dried-up and wasted minds become refreshed. Our burned-out, lackluster passions begin to rage like a wildfire. But God’s offer of true refuge, rest and refreshment work only when we are candid about our assessments of our needs: if we play games and beat around the bush, there is nothing. I know what you’re thinking: that the last time you’d tried praying, there was no response. That God is either dead or doesn’t care about our insignificance, because if He were alive He would have changed your life. Unfortunately, that was never His way of doing things. In fact, the writer of this Psalm says to pray honestly and then contemplate how God will be your hiding place. He writes that God has already provided you with some relief: deliverance and victory. You can hear the victory march, you can see trouble running away, and you are experiencing your hiding place in God. All you had needed to do was to be more honest with God, than you are with any other person you know. Find your hiding place. The rejuvenation, comfort and satisfaction is something we all need. Selah.