Have you ever hidden away in a secret place – a quiet, solitary place away from the world and all of its complications?

            As a teenager, when I struggled with problems or relationships, I used to ride my bike out to my secret place and spend hours there.  It was near the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, where (except for the occasional turtle) only the leaves on the trees and the tall grass stirred, blown by the wind.  It was a place where I felt free, a place where I could clear my head and think my private thoughts, a place where I could search my heart and sort out my feelings.

            It was the place where I could find myself again.

            What I liked best about this place was that, though I was undeniably of the world, there in my secret place I could imagine (at least for a little while) that I was not in the world anymore.  There in my secret place I felt apart from everything in the world that had hurt and confused me.

            It wasn’t until a little later in life, when I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, that all of this turned around.

            No, Jesus hasn’t taken away everything in the world that hurts and confuses me.  In fact, He has called me to be at work here in this world, in all of its complications, loving those who hurt me, seeking His guidance in all of my problems.  He has called me to be at work spreading the Good News of Salvation which comes through Him and which is available to everyone in the world!

            The difference now is that I am no longer of this world.

            That’s because He has freed me from it, from the sin and death that are at the root of all worldly complications.  Now I truly am set apart from the world, set apart for Him – set apart in Him.   

            He calls me to repentance.  He calls me forgiven.   He calls me a child of God.  He calls me holy – set apart!

            He sees me that way.  I only need to look to Jesus to remember who I am, to find myself again.  Now, when life in this world gets complicated, I run to Jesus!  He is my ‘secret place’, the One that I want to tell all the world about – the One that I want so much to tell you about, so that you can be there with Him too.