Escape from Your Life
In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 Be my strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress. – Psalm 71:1-3 NKJV.
Oliver Widger has successfully sailed from Oregon to Hawaii with his cat. Oliver had a good career at a tire company but after he was diagnosed with a condition that could cause paralysis he left his job, cashed in his 401k and bought a sailboat for $50,000. Why did he do it? He shared that he thought that his story was meaningful for a lot of people. He said, “I think a lot of people are, you know, you’re grinding at your job all day long and it doesn’t really matter how much money you make at this point, everybody’s just trying to do enough to get by and that just wears you out.” Oilver, also said that, “People are tired of working really hard for nothing and want a way out.” (AP 05.25.25; CBS 05.24.25; Hawaii Public Radio 05.16.25)
Widger has escaped from his situation and did it by quitting his job, buying the sailboat, and teaching himself how to sail. Looking at the photos, the boat looks like it is a pretty good size boat. So, you would need to have some skill to be able to know what to do with it. So Widger, taught himself how to do it.
So, if you are grinding away at your job or your situation in life you can escape from it. The truth is that you don’t have to buy a sailboat, learn how to sail, and launch out for Hawaii. No, in Psalm 71 David tells us how to escape in another way and a better way.
King David was experienced at escaping from difficult situations time after time. He escaped from the murderous King Saul multiple times. He escaped from the Philistines. He escaped death from the giant Goliath. Psalm 71 was written in David’s old age when his own son, Absolam, rebelled and would have killed his father if he had caught him.
David tells us how he escaped those many times and where he escaped to. How did he escape? He put his trust in God and asked the Lord to deliver him. Where did David escape to? He escaped to the strong refuge of the Lord, and he says that God is, “my rock and my fortress.”
The truth is that God can do the same for you! Ask Him!