Where should I go?

As I won’t be writing to you for a while, I thought I’d close out by sharing with you my initial musings about the focus chorus: Where can I go, seeking a refuge for my soul?

The first phrase, ‘where should I go’ immediately caught my attention. It spoke to me of the prospects of my youth. A new day, a life bursting with opportunities and options. It made me think of blue skies, sand, sea and sun. It spoke to me of friends, good music, a convertible and an open-road – Oh, yeah. It shouted ‘freedom’, the world as my oyster with nary a consequence. What bliss. Ah, the innocence and naivety of misremembered youth.

But then I thought of the Truman Show, hmm.

Do you remember the Truman Show?

In the plot Truman, acted by Jim Carrey, grows up in a world-wide reality show but doesn’t know it. He’s oblivious to the fact that he’s living on a TV set, speaking with actors who have learned their lines or are being fed a script, which the producer, Christof, gives them, depending on the situation.

Truman thinks he’s living on Seahaven Island, which he doesn’t try to leave because, initially, he has a fear of water, after being fed subliminal messages of the dangers. To all intents and purposes, Truman is living his best life, feeling he’s in control; he has prospects, opportunities and options. But he’s actually living a false reality, the brainchild of someone else: someone who’s directing and controlling him – remind you of anyone? Yes, sometimes we can all be a bit like Truman [2 Corinthians 11:3].

What Truman saw was a veneer; he lived in a bubble of misinformation. He was every man. Every man who fails, or refuses, to see the clues of living a lie. Truman’s innocence and naivety blinded him – a lot like misremembered youth, Truman didn’t clock the signs.

We often see what we want to see in this life without giving careful consideration to all the clues that tell us things just aren’t quite what they seem.

So, having clocked the signs, where should I go, seeking a refuge for my soul? Glad you asked.

Me, I’m holding tightly to The Friend who gives me that refuge [1Corinthians 15:34; Matthew 6:33]. But I ask you, have you clocked the signs?

Seek your soul’s refuge and live your best life in Christ, your soul’s salvation.

J. Caroline