This morning I locked myself out of the house.  I knew it the second the door closed behind me. “You don’t have your keys, you idiot!”, the voice in my head rang out loud and clear. So, now what to do?  Since we are new to the area, I knew that the house was, indeed, locked.  I had checked each door carefully before retiring the night before.

It didn’t help that at our staff luncheon yesterday, I had told the team rather proudly that I hadn’t lost my keys yet since arriving in Pennsylvania and Pam laughingly said, “Give it some time…”  Although, technically, I hadn’t actually lost my keys… I knew exactly where they were. They were three feet immediately in front of me; but unfortunately, a door, several pieces of sheetrock and a couple of two by fours stood in my way.

After standing there for some time in the new fallen snow, considering my options, I tentatively rang the doorbell once, then twice.  My daughter Amanda, graciously, albeit sleepily, presented at the front door about 2 minutes later and I was soon on my way.

But I won’t lie. Moving into a new house, a new office, a new area is taking far more energy than I thought.  All of my established patterns and habits have been disrupted, so every individual activity takes intentional thought.  It feels like 85% of my brain capacity is being used just to function in my new surroundings, leaving very little bandwidth for actual strategic or creative thinking.

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“OK… where is the milk in this grocery store?  Wow, Shady Maple Market is REALLY big! This could take a while.”

“There are 26 healthcare options on Healthcare.gov, which one will our doctors accept? Oh wait… we don’t have any doctors yet.”

Or someone pops into my office and says, “Hi Pastor Steve! Welcome to Bethany!” and I say, “Thanks so much, [search for name, search for name]… “we are settling in fine, thanks for the warm welcome.”  [dang it, they sit two rows behind me in church and I’ve greeted them 10 times already]… sigh.

And after opening multiple cabinets, “PAM WHERE DO WE KEEP THE COFFEE IN THIS HOUSE!”

So. Much. Change.

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When I finally did get to the church this morning, I took some time to settle and read the Bible with my first cup of coffee.  When I don’t have any particular scripture to read, I often fall back on a two year lectionary from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) which is delivered to my in-box every day. The morning Psalm was Psalm 46.

¹   God is our refuge and strength, 
a very present help in trouble.
²   Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change… 

I’m not familiar with that wording, since it’s the NRSV, but I did a quick check against the Hebrew and it’s correct.  “I will not fear, though the earth should change.” Well, my world sure has been changing.

What a great promise. To those whose world is changing, God is our refuge and strength.

God is my refuge.  In other words, he is our shelter, our protection, our safe haven. In an ever-changing world, God is our true north, the One who never changes and the One who hold our future.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). I am learning, daily, what it means to stop and take shelter in the unchanging arms of my Savior, even while circumstances rapidly change in my world.

God is my strength.  When I operate in my own strength and limited resources, I am quickly overwhelmed. But through the Holy Spirit, God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). in God’s strength, I can do all that he has called me to do. So, stop, breathe and tackle that next thing God brings your way with a spirit of gratefulness and simple trust in the One who has promised to “make our path straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)”

If we’re honest, there’s an awful lot in all of our worlds that are changing right now.  We can’t control it, but we can rest in our unchanging God who has promised to be our refuge and strength.