A New View

To acquire a new way of looking at things, sometimes you have to rip off the roof.

Car stuffed, children begging to know when we’d be there, I wove down the craggy Georgetown peninsula, searching for Sea Blessing, the Maine rental house friends had generously invited us to enjoy for a ten-day getaway. Which is exactly what I was doing.

Getting away!

Back home, my husband, Dana, and our fantastic contractor Dylan Hopper were tearing half the roof off our house—from the peak to the eave. Since moving to the country one decade ago, we’d wanted to add a full-length dormer to our upstairs, which lacked head space and north-facing windows. But knowing how costly and disruptive it would be, we’d put it off. Until now.

Our thirty-five-year-old, moss-covered roof desperately needed replacing. But if were going to spend the money, I wanted a new view—one that required gutting half our upstairs. Including our laundry room and only full bathroom.

My friend’s invitation could not have come at a more perfect time. So instead of being blasted by shingles and sheetrock, I was cruising toward one of Maine’s most popular beaches to enjoy the fresh ocean breeze, the nearby Five Islands dock with its some of Maine’s best seafood, and hunting for sea glass with three young children.

Surely, many of us today need such an escape.

An escape from the destruction

And turmoil

And chaos

That daily threatens to overwhelm our lives.

But what do we do when escape seems impossible?

“God is our refuge and strength,” the Psalmist writes, “always ready to help in times of trouble” (46:1, NLT).

This is the same refuge my friend Xochitl Dixon describes in her new book, Sacred Strides: Walking in the Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit. In this encouraging devotional, Dixon recounts numerous stories of people facing overwhelming challenges, beginning with her own.

After suddenly losing the ability to walk, Dixon spent a frightening night alone in a hospital. As a patient wailed in a nearby room, she tried to pray, but wrote, “I couldn’t even think of the right words.” Then into her mind came the Scripture above, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble.”

“Ever present. Always. Even here,” Dixon prayed.

“I don’t know how to describe the depth of peace that poured over and around and into every crevice of my being,” Dixon recalled. In spite of the pain, God’s presence, through the Holy Spirit, enabled Dixon to face her fears with a new peace grounded in prayer.

This is the same place God invites each of us to—one where we view life’s challenges through His sheltering presence.

The same way that my friends generously invited my family to share their home, God generously invites us to share His home—“the city of our God,” which cannot be destroyed. Not by environmental catastrophes. Or war. Or global upheaval, all of which this Psalm describes.

Why?

Because God himself dwells there.

This is the new view, through prayer, we need when facing times of trouble.

Does this view make our challenges disappear?

Not exactly.

But facing our challenges with God’s strength and wisdom—rather than our own—does offer us a new perspective.

Which is how—knowing it would be a full month or more before I could shower or do laundry in my own home—I found myself praying,

Lord, please give me your peace and grace in the middle of the process.

To get a new view, sometimes requires ripping off a roof and all of the chaos that ensues. But whatever challenges you face, know that God invites you to view them through His peace and grace.

With all the end-of-summer changes at home, I took an August hiatus from writing this newsletter. But as our youngest children head back to school, I’m hard at work revising my middle grade novel, Delilah Down Under, based on a year I spent living at a mission in Darwin, Australia. After incorporating feedback from a couple Aussie authenticity readers, I hope to send it out to potential publishers this month.

This fall will also be my first year away from the classroom. After seven years of grading English papers and giving tests, I am letting that field lay fallow to focus on my family and my writing. But if you are local, you may see me as a substitute teacher in a classroom near you. Prayers appreciated!

I also have a series of essays coming out in books by Guideposts publications, including the September 1 release of Living the Word: Reflections on Scriptures Most Beloved Passages, in which I share how God answered a prayer through “A Mom Next Door.” Guideposts anthologies make wonderful gifts to encourage anyone going through a hard time. I’ve given away a couple just this week! For a 15% discount at checkout, use the code: AUTHOR15 and leave a comment below, subscribe, or share this newsletter throughout the month of September for a chance to win a free copy! I will randomly draw a name on September 30.

So friends, whatever challenges you face this week, face them with God, who promises to provide a place of refuge.

Peace, Joy, and Hope,

Meadow

Award-winning author Meadow Rue Merrill writes stories that nurture the imagination, foster faith, and inspire a lifelong love of reading. Subscribe to Meadow’s Field Journal to join her writing journey and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.