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What are some hiding places that people use to try to find relief from pain and reality?
Eating is a common hiding place. To stifle pain or avoid the unpleasant, many of us eat. Many eat to try to hide from loneliness. There are many eating disorders, caused by people who’ve tried to use food as a hiding place, but of course it never works.
Then there’s work. Many workaholics hide out by staying busy. The pain or reality can be temporarily submerged by busyness, whether it’s working at a job or just filling up your life with excessive activity. Have you been hiding behind work or busyness? It won’t work for long.
Perfectionists are often hiding out in their perfectionism. I think of one person who is obsessed in keeping his environment perfect. Underneath the surface there is much pain and some unpleasant realities that he doesn’t want to admit or face. Somehow being obsessed with keeping everything perfect is his way of trying to avoid talking about or confronting the problems that are there.
We hide out in relationships, trying to bury ourselves in someone else. That, of course, places a large burden on those relationships and often kills or damages them severely. Some people hide out in their daydreams of a relationship—living in the unreal world of an imagined man or woman who is going to save them from being alone.
Where have you been trying to hide out? Well, I want to encourage you today to know that God understands your need to hide, and he has provided a safe and effective hiding place for you. But if you choose a wrong hiding place, like one of these, you’re headed for disaster. They won’t give you the shelter and comfort you need.
There is a safe place where you can always hide.