April 20

Accountability day: send me an email telling me what chapter you are on.
I will be out of the office for several days so if you don’t receive a respond or emails over the next few days you will know why. Juan is in Galveston Texas for the week doing humanitarian work so I think the next email devotion will be Friday from Apryl. Stay faithful to the daily reading of God’s word.

Are you a refuge?

In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge.
Be my rock of refuge.
You saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.
My life is consumed by anguish.
I am a dread to my friends.- those who see me on the street flee from me.
I hear the slander of many. Selections from Psalm 31

I recently read a letter written to Ann Landers. The writer wrote about a funeral wake that she recently attended. She said that the experience was extremely sad because the visitation was for a 13 year old girl who had committed suicide.
“Sally was a beautiful girl who wanted desperately to belong. She tried out for cheer‑leading and didn't make it. In fact, she failed to get into a single club she had signed up for. She was crushed after these failures.
A few weeks later Sally won a raffle. It was a certificate from a pizza place that entitled her to invite 14 friends to a pizza dinner. She turned down the prize because she didn't have 14 friends.
At the funeral home I sat and watched as the school kids come through in droves. I counted well over 100 in the 45 minutes I was there. Later I learned more than 200 had signed the guest book.
The longer I watched the angrier it made me. Dozens of teenagers placed a single flower in the casket. Many touched her hand and wept as they moved along.
I wanted to take those kids and shake them. If they cared so much for her why did they wait until she died before they let her know?
Sally left this world believing she didn't have a single friend. If just one of those kids who passed her casket had taken the time and trouble to show her a little kindness, Sally might have been alive today."
This letter concluded with this phrase, “Please print this for all the Sally’s out there for whom there may still be a chance.”

When I was growing up in the 60’s there was a great new idea called “Block Parents.” A Block Parent was a place of refuge for kids who found themselves in trouble. The sign of a Black Parent was a silhouette of a parent hand in hand with a child. You placed this sign in the front window of your house and if a child was in danger they could come to you. Only a knock on the door and there will be safety from trouble. Just a ring of the door bell and you would find shelter from the storm.

One of the toughest things in life is going through the storms. These storms are even tougher when you go through them alone. The truth is that most people today have no one to hold their hand in a storm. There are very few places of refuge in our cold world. We could focus on that all day and become really discouraged. But I have a better idea, why don't we try to become a place of refuge ourselves. Why don’t we form a kingdom Block Parent association? There are plenty of places to hang your Kingdom Block Parent sign, the office, our home, the health club and even in the church. If you had lived in David’s time would he have turned to you for refuge?

Here is the question for the day, Are you a refuge for the hurting Sally’s of the world?