Today’s post just seemed better in audio, so I made a recording. You can listen below:

Do you ever feel like the journey of your life is headed in the wrong direction? Like you want to find someplace safe to hide?

I do. In fact, I know for certain that I am not supposed to be here. But, neither are you for that matter.

You and I were created to live in a world that acts and feels nothing like this. A place that doesn’t make us cry or sweat or worry. A garden created just for us where we amble with our Maker in the cool of the day instead of rushing home in the heat of afternoon traffic.

But we live here: Outside the garden of our beginning and not yet inside the garden of our eternity. That is why, in the quiet moments when we have done all we can do to manage our steps, we look around our lives and wonder, “How did I get here?”

We wonder why we have this nagging feeling that we’ve ended up in the wrong place, maybe even a dangerous place. Surely, we missed something in the noise and chaos of the journey.

So, we search for somewhere else to be. We check our social media, our to-do lists, our bathroom scales, and our relationship status. The fears, inadequacies, and self-improvement projects these sources reveal placate us with plans for a moment, but that nagging feeling persists.

So, we consult our feeds and magazines, searching for something more we need to know but can’t quite put a finger on. We look for some part of all of this mess that we can control. All our sources clearly point us toward someplace better, but we don’t know where to find it or how to get there. All we know about that place is that it is not here!

Our search leaves us lost and afraid, so we look for a place to restart and get back on track. We begin with our past and evaluate our stories to see where it all went wrong. Next, we measure our successes and failures against the world. We look for someone to blame. Then, we define, craft, scheme, rage, work, and perform to correct the errors, all in the vain hope that we will get to the place that we’re supposed to be.

The world tells us that if we just keep buying and trying, we’ll get there. We still don’t know where “there” is, but we keep moving toward it anyway.

What if, right here and right now, instead, we stop? Maybe instead of trying to satisfy that nagging and fearsome feeling, we sit with it instead—you and I together in this place between two gardens.

If you will spread a blanket on the ground and settle here in the noise and mess of the place you don’t belong, I will leave this place where I am not supposed to be and meet you here. And, after I hear the story of your journey to this place, I will tell you mine. We will laugh, we might cry, but eventually, we will discover together the divine equilibrium in the truth of our stories.

Here is that place: The truth that no one with something to sell you will tell you is that life is not about the sum of all the places where you do not belong. The truth that no one who seeks to control you will show you is that your life story rests not in this place but with the Creator of all the somewheres who says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest“ (Matthew 11:28).

He is Lord of all our journeys. No pitfall, scheme, or danger on the path can throw Him. And He not only makes the places, He lights up the path to draw you toward His Way. Listen closely as you stand and gather up your blanket to walk in the direction of His light, and you will also hear Him saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:32).

That, my friend, is good news for tired feet.

God so loves you and me that He constantly creates a path ahead of us toward a new place. A restored garden with no crying, no sweating, no worrying, and—best of all—no wandering. And, one day, we will arrive at that place, our home.

In the meantime, we can walk this path together, you and me. I’ll carry your blanket when the travel makes you weary, and you can remind me of the Good News when I forget. Because we will both get tired, and we will both forget.

But our Savior who beckons us forward is patient with us. He is perfectly aware of the voices that cry out, “This is not where you’re supposed to be!” And, in response, He counters:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. I am the way the truth and the life.

John 14:1 NIV, 14:2 NKJV, 14:3-4,6 NIV

My friend, Christ is the culmination of all our somewheres. He is the Lord of all the places. And, in Him is exactly where we are supposed to be. He is the good news for our tired feet.

© Lori Myers Berry