August 21. Jeff Voth. Jeff grew up primarily in Colorado but now lives in Oklahoma.
He has written three books that evolved out of his personal walk with Christ. He is the founder and director of an international men’s ministry called Cavetime, which challenges men to practice five disciplines in their daily lives.
On this date in 2012, Jeff published Cavetime, God’s Plan for Man’s Escape from Life’s Assaults.
Driven to succeed, a place to hide may be what you need.
Jeff was powering through his ten-mile run when pain shot up his left arm. What was happening? That question and a million others raced through his mind as the pain increased and spiraled out of control.
Soon, flat on his back in the emergency room, hooked to a heart monitor and numerous other medical devices, Jeff wondered how this could happen. A gnawing in his gut wouldn’t quit. “I was only thirty-three years old. Was I having a heart attack? I just felt sick … hopeless. I needed to hide somewhere.”
Jeff was a self-admitted junkie—and performance was his drug of choice. Life was one big competition to achieve, to win, to be the best, to live clean, and to do well at all costs. He believed that to be loved, he had to perform at a certain level—at home, at church, and in his relationship with God.
Turned out, Jeff wasn’t having a heart attack. He was having a full-blown panic attack. He was—like many men who for one reason or another find themselves in trouble—panicking and believing he had nowhere to go for help.
Panicking men don’t have an escape plan or any idea where to hide and collect their thoughts in a healthy way. They try to escape everything and run back to old “comfortable” places. “I became depressed and began to have panic attacks,” Jeff said. “I went into what [one writer] has called the dark night of the soul.”
“I wouldn’t have admitted to it before this emotional crash, but I really believed deep in my heart that for God to love me (and for that matter, for people to love me), I had to earn it. I spoke of grace, but I didn’t accept it from God, and I didn’t extend it all that well either. What’s more, I was the product of a culture that put pressure on a man to be a man, yet did nothing to help him find out what being one really meant.”
Jeff needed answers, and he found them where he never expected … in a cave with King David.
Through no fault of his own, David—that one-time shepherd boy who decapitated the giant Goliath—had grown up and was overcome by debt and distress. He was being hounded by King Saul, who wanted to kill David. So David was searching for a safe place to hide, a place where he could find strength, honor, and bare his soul to God without judgment. Having lost all of his support systems, he ran to a cave he knew so he could hide. In the quiet darkness, David found God waiting there for him.
Jeff discovered that David’s time in the cave provided a clear message for men today—men like himself. The message from the cave built men up and allowed them to become the strong men God had created them to be. That message changed Jeff’s life and the lives of hundreds of men with whom he has shared its truth through his ministry, Cavetime.
Cavetime helps men in the middle of life’s assaults. By challenging men to spend time alone with God and build a deeply personal relationship with him, Cavetime helps men find hope. God desires a real, raw, and transparent relationship—one forged in vibrant, truthful conversations—in the cave.
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (Psalm 57:1 ESV).
Have you ever overlooked the warning signs in your life and found yourself in trouble? Battered by a storm? God is waiting for you; find your cave. Driven to succeed, a place to hide may be what you need.
Voth, Jeff. Cavetime: God’s Plan for Man’s Escape from Life’s Assaults. Sapulpa, OK: Honor Net, 2015.
Sherman, Bill. Tulsa World. “Pastor follows David’s path to escape the dark.” 2016. Posted October 6, 2012. https://www.tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/pastor-follows-davids-path-to-escape-the-dark/article_eaf5e8ce-3cbe-5d20-9124-15e0bd750af0.html
Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Thomas Mitchell, http://www.walkwithgod.org/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project Manager: Blake Mattocks
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