Sheltering in Christ

These unprecedented times overwhelmingly remind us that no matter where you live or what your background, you will feel sacrifice and suffering in some way. Suffering is a universal state that is common to humanity and was, no doubt, before any Coronavirus entered the scene.

Though we posses varying Enneagram numbers, personalities, feelings and skin colors, one truth unites us: we all desire a reliable shelter - a safe place to ride out a storm.

There are specific and reassuring comforts that come from finding shelter in the person of Jesus. I pray these encourage your heart and strengthen your trust in the refuge that is always available to you.

He is a safe refuge. He is familiar with your suffering. He is the only One sufficient to help.

Jesus is a safe place.

Over the past week, I am reminded that “sheltering in place” does not provide a safe place for everyone. My heart breaks to hear that domestic violence and child abuse has surged over the past few weeks. Vulnerable children are increasingly exposed to a variety of predators in person and online. Emotional and verbal abuse causes an equal amount of danger inside the walls of the very place meant to be a refuge from the outside world and looming virus.

Though my own home is safe, I still feel the dangers lurking around every corner. Something I struggle with is allowing my mind to picture the worst outcome in every scenario. Now that I identify as an Enneagram 6, I know I am not alone.

Fear is gripping isn’t it? The ‘what ifs’ never cease.

Freedom for me comes most when two things happen:

1. I voice the specific fear out loud to a trusted friend or my husband and we process it together.

2. I dive deep into the Word of God and ask myself, “Do I believe the possibility in my head over His promises, or can I take the next step forward because of who He says He is for me?”

My husband always asks me if that ‘worst thing’ I am imagining happens, does it make God any less real, any less reliable or any less true?

Keeping the fear inside, strengthens its grip on my heart and solidifies the thinking that it’s my own battle to fight. Friend, we cannot fight this alone. We need a safe place. We need help. Maybe that safe place isn’t home for you and this time of ‘sheltering in place’ is excruciating on many levels.

I am here to remind you there is a safe place for us to rest our swirling thoughts, our silent cries, our weary bodies.

Psalm 61:4 ESV - “Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah.”

I am safe today, not because the circumstances around me have changed, but because I can take refuge under the wings of an Almighty God who made a way for me through Jesus to find a safe place.

Jesus, who sacrificed and suffered on our behalf, provides a way for me to seek shelter in him on the daily.



Jesus is familiar with your suffering.

As with any death, grief knocks at the door and sorrow rushes in at varying degrees. I have sat with a wife the day she said goodbye to her husband and father to two young boys. There is no accurate measure for the depth of sorrow.

I have felt the sting of saying goodbye to one of my longest and dearest friends, and the pit of emptiness has not gone away years later.

To a lesser but equally significant degree, this is a season of lingering sorrow as we all say goodbye to plans and the gathered community for an indefinite time.

Some of us will have death visit those near and dear to us during this pandemic, and some of us have already felt the unbearable pain associated with the death of a loved one.

I think for any who have felt the pain of great loss, it may feel as though no one else can understand our situation exactly. While that may be true on earth, it is not fully true. Take comfort.

Isaiah 53:3 ESV - “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

As I cry out today, I am comforted by a Savior who has felt the sting, the isolation, the pain of sorrow to a level you or I will never know. He not only hears my cries but can sympathize with me in a way no one else can.

Jesus is a sufficient shelter.

I have seen post after post by many well-meaning believers and unbelievers alike, that simply “trusting in Jesus” during a time of great uncertainty is inconsequential, lacking sufficiency. While I do agree it is possible to trust in Jesus to carry me through trials and still feel the tension of some anxiety, it by no means minimizes the sufficiency of trusting in Him as your strength and source of understanding. Either we can or we can’t trust Him.

Who seeks to serve a God who is not big enough to trust in the most challenging of times?

So I ask, “Where am I taking shelter?” If he isn’t enough, then what am I looking to for shelter?

“We have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter…” Isaiah 28:15 ESV

Am I sheltering in the lies that I tell myself about who God is or isn’t, in order to make sense of the world around me? Or do I shelter in the One who has always been enough?

“For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat…” Isaiah 25:4 ESV

I desire to have understanding and control and all of the answers to give my children, but I don’t if I am being honest. I don’t have any answers other than who God is and what he promises. If I truly believe Jesus is the son of God, then He is a sufficient shelter for any storm that may come.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” Proverbs 3:5-8 ESV

As I persevere through suffering with a faith in Jesus, it leads me to find shelter, not in my own understanding, but in the One who is capable of walking through this with me. He is enough.

While this is not an exhaustive list, these are a just a few truths I have been meditating upon this week.

I pray they encourage your heart, as it did mine, to more deeply trust, more fully love, and more peacefully rest because there is a living, active, sufficient God who came as a man, in the person of Jesus, to rescue us from being left helpless through any storm.

He gives comfort.

He gives shelter.

He gives rest.

He gives purpose.

He gives hope.

His name is Jesus.