Submarined

Money is good. It’s what we trade for the necessities and comforts of life. But it’s a means.

Relationships are good, too. They’re how we know and live in the world around us. Better, but not there yet.

I am learning, God’s presence is the only thing that brings completeness.

Other things—good things—bring satisfaction to a certain point. I love my family more than I can describe. But if that’s all I had, there would still be something missing.

It’s only God’s presence that can keep us moving through the “valley of the shadow” and still, somehow, keep us from losing hope.

I have come to think of the time I spend with God each morning as a submarine. No matter how rough the waves, I can always dive deeper.

It’s not escapism. I’m not forgetting what’s going on on the surface. It’s more I’m remembering how deep and wide God is.

And in that, there is true comfort.

This, I think, it much like the prayer Elisha prayed for his servant in 2 Kings 6. One morning, his servant goes out early to find their little city surrounded by an army. An army who, just so happens, is calling their name.

Scared, the servant ran back to tell Elisha. But Elisha wasn’t worried. Instead, he asked God that he would open the eyes of his servant, so that he could see things as they really were. A moment later, his young servant looked around, and everywhere, filling all the surrounding mountains, there was a fiery army—vastly outnumbering this human army. It was God.

Life is all about perspective.

But not all perspectives are created equally.