“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (New King James Version, James 4:14b)

A rushed life. A hectic life. Busy, dizzy, blaring. Intoxicating, nauseating.

Why do we live such roaring lives? Why fear the quiet, the halt?

Is it because we are running away?

A blank calendar leaves us space to recall we only have so many days. A turned-off screen brings us back to reality where we’re finite and frail.

So tiny in the scheme of things. So little in the light of eternity.

It’s terrifying really. Here we are, fantastically intelligent creatures, housed in magnificently-tuned bodies, plopped in the middle of a glorious planet, swirling in an endless sea of universe.

How can we be so magnificent yet so fragile, our lives ever hanging in the balance?

Distraction shushes our terror.

And yet.

And yet what if there is something better? Something better than this sickening distraction?

What if we are called to fully uncover our weakness- to fill our eyes, fill our souls with the nakedness and the glory of our existence?

Our souls are bare before God. How far we fall from His perfect standard. We are an almost invisible vapor; He is the immortal Matter of all matters. Seeing our bankruptcy on every account causes us to run to Him. He is the deep well we must draw, He is the eternal life we must have. If only we let Him, He takes away our shame; He removes our failings; and He covers us.

We can face our finiteness and our frailty- because He is strong. We can face our weakness- because He is good. And we can face our smallness- because it means we fit in His hand.

No need to run anymore.