This may prove that I’m in dire needs of increased medication, but I really want to live in a book right now. Currently, I’m reading These High Green Hills by Jan Karon, book 3 of the Mitford series, and I really wish there was a real Mitford so I could move there.

Think of an updated version of Mayberry or even Stars Hollow (for the post-2000s crowd). I’d eat at the Main Street Grill, pick up a book or two at Happy Endings bookstore, and hang out with some of the locals.

The best part of revisiting a book is that you can slip back into that world. It really is like going back to a favorite vacation spot. You know what to expect. You know what’s there. But still something might still sneak up and surprise you that you hadn’t noticed before.

I like books that I can visualize in my head and see myself living in that world. Another writer who has written books I want to live in is Charles Martin. He’s the one that kinda made me want to like on a houseboat. But probably not for very long. I might get a bit seasick.

Books are the best when you can escape into another world and not have to pay for airplane tickets or hotel reservations. You can be right where you are at home or in the car (hopefully with an audiobook if you’re driving) and be in a completely different place in your mind. That’s what I love about reading a good book of fiction.

“When bridges seem to give way, we fall into Christ’s safe arms, true bridge, and not into hopelessness. It is safe to trust! We can be too weak to go on because His strength is made perfect in utter brokenness and nail-pierced hands help up. It is safe to trust! We can give thanks in everything because there’s a good God leading, working all things into good. It is safe to trust! The million bridges behind us may seem flattened to the earthly eye, but all bridges ultimately hold, fastened by nails. It is safe to trust” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

It’s only when we look back and see a million ways God has provided and protected us that we can remember that it is still safe to trust. When we skim through the pages of Scripture, we can read name after name, story after story that shows God’s unfailing love and unflagging care for His people. It is still safe to trust.

Ultimately, when we look up at the cross and see Jesus suspended between heaven and earth, holding nothing back but sacrificing it all, we can confidently state that it is safe to trust because we know that whatever stood in the way between us and God has been removed by the blood of the Lamb who was slain but is alive forevermore.

“So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11, The Message).

I’ve said it before, but sometimes it helps to read a familiar passage in a different translation. It helps to bring out some of the nuances in the text that aren’t in your translation of choice. For me, it makes the passage come alive to read it in a more modern rendition.

I love this passage. We need to learn to not only love much but to love well. Our love needs to be based in faith not feelings and above all in truth. Otherwise, it becomes sentimental gush. We need to love the way God has loved is in Christ — He loves us as we are but refuses to leave us that way. Love does everything in its power to bring out the very best in the beloved.

Lord, help us to love in a way that draws people closer to You and in a way that brings out all that You created them to be. Help us to love them like You loved us. Amen.

I was listening to a book that brought up a conversation someone had with the late Vance Havner, a Southern Baptist minister and evangelist. Vance asked how they were doing and they responded with something like “I’m doing well under the circumstances.”

Vance responded with “Well, what are you doing under the circumstances?”

Basically, believers shouldn’t live under the circumstances as if they dictated or controlled our lives. We should be above our circumstances. We serve a God who is outside of time and is in control of every iota of our lives.

That’s the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial and depends a lot on what happens to me, as in how my day is going, what kind of mood I’m in, if I got enough sleep, etc. Joy is joy no matter what. Joy is also a choice that I can make every single day.

Living above the circumstances is keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus not my obstacles. It’s running toward the prize of the upward calling instead of being all over the place trying to put out a million fires or multitasking everything at once. It comes from a place of peace of knowing that the outcome is already assured.

I want to live above my circumstances because I know my circumstances will change as surely as the weather. I want to be so led by the Spirit that I am unfazed by any outward chaos, just as Jesus was able to sleep on the boat in the middle of a storm.

May each of us choose today to live above our circumstances and not under them.

A quick note to start. I am not in distress, but I imagine somebody reading these words is. Someone is going through something that I can’t even begin to comprehend. There is someone out there who would love to have one of my bad days because my bad days are way better than their good days.

But this promise is true. Underneath the current of heaviness is a counter-current of great rejoicing and peace. And underneath all that are the everlasting arms of Jesus. He gives a peace that transcends anything that makes sense to us or that we can comprehend. In Him we can have a blessed assurance even in the worst of circumstances because Jesus is mine.

I don’t know how it works. I know that the strength to endure only comes at the exact moment when it is most needed. God’s grace is like the daily manna in the wilderness that you couldn’t hoard for a rainy day or store up for the future. You had to trust in faith from day to day for the next day and not worry beyond that. That’s what faith in the midst of crisis is like. Strength for today and bright hope for a tomorrow beyond the pain and suffering.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:3-5, NLT).

That’s not my default setting. I don’t normally rejoice when things go wrong or when I’m tested by tough circumstances. Normally, I whine. I complain. I wonder how much longer this is going to last. But rarely if ever do I thank God for what He’s doing.

But trials lead to endurance. Endurance leads to strong character. Strong character leads to confident hope. And that leads to unwavering trust. And in the middle of it all, the knowledge that God is working all things together for good helps us not to give up.

That’s what I want, God helping me. I want to rejoice no matter what. I don’t want to give thanks for the hard and bad stuff. That would be weird. But I can give thanks in the midst of it, knowing it leads to something good and something unexpected. And I can rest in the peace of God knowing no trial or problem He allows is ever wasted.