We hear a lot today about “safe places.” From what I can gather, it’s a place where you can go to avoid hearing something you don’t want to hear, as if words could cause bodily harm. You get the impression that someone in need of such a place is holed up shaking somewhere in a fetal position, with his or her fingers jammed in their ears.

We actually have people in this state in institutions of higher learning, and even more weird, those whose one calling in life is to provide safe places from all sorts of verbal “assaults.”

You can’t expect sympathy from the sticks or stones crowd, of which I belong. But I can tell you I have a safe place, and that’s with Jesus in a quiet prayerful place with the Word of God in front of me, albeit on an iPad.

If you’re exhausted from godly pursuits, or you’re simply mad as you know what and can’t take it anymore, it’s time to get away to a secluded place and hang out with him. Now that’s a real safe place!

They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. Mark 6:32