5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him.
7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.
Our lives are hidden in Christ, according to the book of Colossians. He wants us to hide ourselves in Him. And we can gain a fresh sense of His presence and His love as we commune with Him in secret, in private - confessing our sins, casting our cares, and releasing our burdens to Him. Rather than parade our offenses before other humans, He wants us to humble ourselves and allow Him to release us from those things that would weigh us down.
Jesus set an example for us in that He spent quality time alone in prayer with His Father. And, He
taught us about taking our requests before Him in private. Matthew 6 says:
5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
We are in the midst of that season in which students are completing their school years and preparing for summer. Some college students have already taken those important steps and walked through their graduation ceremony, having completed their final exams. Others are perhaps in the midst of that challenging period.
Students at the University of Utah had a little help from a friend - according to USA Today:
The article said that this tiny, free-standing space had received praise and criticism.
So, it is artistic or functional, or both? A CBN News story uses the word, "coddling," and refers to comments from a Christian family therapist, Dr. Linda Mintle, who is quoted as saying:
Back to that word again - closet. While I think the "cry closet," which seems to be mainly an artistic expression, does represent a culture of overreaction, there is something to be said for Christians having a place to go in order to place our concerns, our burdens, before the Lord. Jesus warned against praying in order to be seen of other people, rather, we are to go somewhere private and call upon Him. Our prayer closet, or the place we go to meet with God can be seen as a place to express our dependence on Him, rather than to accommodate or authenticate an escapist mentality. And, perhaps when we are feeling offended, we can go before the Lord in that secret place and have Him remove that feeling, rather than justify it.
When we are facing stress in our lives, we can practically open the pages of the Word of God and open our minds to allow His peace to permeate us. God will comfort us, but we can't expect Him to coddle us. We don't come to Him to get our feelings validated; rather, we identify sin in our heart and He desires to conform our desires with His own.
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Jesus set an example for us in that He spent quality time alone in prayer with His Father. And, He
taught us about taking our requests before Him in private. Matthew 6 says:
5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
We are in the midst of that season in which students are completing their school years and preparing for summer. Some college students have already taken those important steps and walked through their graduation ceremony, having completed their final exams. Others are perhaps in the midst of that challenging period.
Students at the University of Utah had a little help from a friend - according to USA Today:
The university's library has a "Cry Closet" now available for "stressed out students," a statement on the closet's door reads.
"The space is meant to provide a place for students studying for finals to take a short 10-minute break."
And, there are rules listed: Knock before entering, only one person inside at a time, limit time inside to 10 minutes and turn the lights out before leaving.
The closet, a free-standing woodshop project by senior Nemo Miller in collaboration with Tony Miller and David Meyer, was installed Sunday. It's lined with a black interior, and plush stuffed animals are inside.How cozy! Nemo stated: "One aspect of humanity that I am currently exploring is connections and missed connections through communication," adding, "It’s been interesting to watch the response to this piece about human emotions, and I’m proud to see the power of art in action."
The article said that this tiny, free-standing space had received praise and criticism.
So, it is artistic or functional, or both? A CBN News story uses the word, "coddling," and refers to comments from a Christian family therapist, Dr. Linda Mintle, who is quoted as saying:
"In the work world, if they're stressed by a project, or they have a deadline, they have to take an exam, maybe a certifying exam, they're not going to have a safe space," she said, "They're going to be expected to show up, to do the work, to make the deadlines and they're going to have to face that stress."The story relates that, "She said in order to fully prepare for life after college, students in the university setting should learn to face stress head-on, not learn to buckle under it."
Mintle said, "The biggest concern I have for this is we are seeing a generation of people who do not have stress inoculation," adding, "So the idea is you have to get a little bit of stress every once in a while as you're growing up, so you get inoculated, just like with a vaccination."
I agree - it seems on college campuses these days, there is a pervasive hypersensitivity - in which students are easily offended and express a desire to be accommodated.
In the church, I think we have to guard against a mindset of being easily offended. Just spend a few minutes on social media and you see people expressing their reactions to various issues, and not necessarily communicating a Christlike spirit. Donna Gaines, the wife of Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines, even tweeted out the other day:
Southern Baptists we should get off social media & into our Bibles & prayer closets; off our high horses & onto our knees. “O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. 4 our sins are piled higher than our heads, & our guilt has reached 2 the heavens” Ez.9:6There's a great course correction for you. Rather be caught up in emotion or the tension we commonly find in the "unsafe space" of social media, we can advance in the Lord by retreating into our prayer closet. And, oh, by the way, according to Matthew 18, Jesus taught about the protocol for confronting those whom we think have missed the mark; in Matthew 6, He prescribes how to approach that person with whom we have differences.
Back to that word again - closet. While I think the "cry closet," which seems to be mainly an artistic expression, does represent a culture of overreaction, there is something to be said for Christians having a place to go in order to place our concerns, our burdens, before the Lord. Jesus warned against praying in order to be seen of other people, rather, we are to go somewhere private and call upon Him. Our prayer closet, or the place we go to meet with God can be seen as a place to express our dependence on Him, rather than to accommodate or authenticate an escapist mentality. And, perhaps when we are feeling offended, we can go before the Lord in that secret place and have Him remove that feeling, rather than justify it.
When we are facing stress in our lives, we can practically open the pages of the Word of God and open our minds to allow His peace to permeate us. God will comfort us, but we can't expect Him to coddle us. We don't come to Him to get our feelings validated; rather, we identify sin in our heart and He desires to conform our desires with His own.
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