Submitted by: Mary Heller, Spiritual Life VP, Ft. Meade, MD
We have all had one of “those” days. I tend to have 3-7 of them in any given week! While in conversation on a phone, balanced between my ear and my shoulder, I’m answering an email and a Facebook instant-message (IM) on the computer – all while finishing a conversation with someone at the front door. The baby begins repeating the word “Up!” while proceeding to climb on me (not only on to my lap – Oh, no!) She is progressing up my chest. Then I smell… IT! (ewww) Meanwhile the cell phone begins ‘ringing’ my favorite song – rather LOUDLY. Oh, the poor person trying to have a civil conversation with me over the phone! I ask my older son to take my preschooler down from the chandelier, as I continue trying to talk on both phones at the same time. The newest call is the school nurse telling me that my younger son is in her office and his diabetes measure is not good again; still. That finished, I return my attention to the baby as I don the gas mask & giant rubber gloves so as to attack the diaper situation. Suddenly, I realize that I can’t find the dresser “key” to open the drawers and get fresh – very needed – baby clothes out. I sound quite a bit like Darth Vader (talking through the gas mask) as I continue conversing with my oh-so-patient PWOC sister on the phone. Then the fire alarm goes off – darn toaster oven! Glancing at the clock, I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry as I notice the time: 9am.
Exaggeration? Ok, maybe my daughter swinging from the chandelier is a slight (yes, slight) exaggeration. She hasn’t gotten much higher than the top drawer of the tallest dresser. Later the same day I note (on my Facebook page on the internet) that I need to write this devotion and am encouraged when someone says, “You should write about God’s peace in the midst of the crazies. You’d be really good at that.” Really? Wow. You go God!
So what is peace? Peace, in Hebrew, meant “Wholeness, health, safety.” Interesting. I offer a humorous glimpse into my life knowing, however, that not all of life’s crazies are funny. There are a variety of crazies being experienced all around us. There are family crazies; health crazies; stage of life crazies; seasonal crazies; military crazies. These crazies do not leave us feeling whole, healthy or safe in the moment.
Paul, the self-described apostle to the gentiles said, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9)
He started with “rejoice,” which in the Greek includes ‘to be full of cheer, that is, calmly happy or well off’. Wow. Paul starts us off with a calm chorus of the great old hymn “It is Well With My Soul.” This rejoicing is not a wonderful emotional feeling. It is a calm, quiet, well state of being. Next he tells us not to worry. Paul’s personal experience with crazy suffering through beatings, starvation and imprisonment; offers three ways to avoid worry.
First, prayer. Tell God. Tell Jesus. Jesus “is a man of sorrow; a man well acquainted with grief.” (Is 53:3a) He understands. He cares. He wants to hear.
Secondly, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving looks back to what God did before. Thanksgiving says, “I have seen God provide and do this, that and the other thing. Therefore, I know that He will hear my prayer and will help with this situation.” Thanksgiving states what we’ve seen – to find vision to move forward. Finally, Paul breaks it down in no uncertain terms: focus. Peace comes in “taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5) by keeping our focus on the positive and dwelling on these things. In this focus is thanksgiving that says, “Even if I feel broken, unhealthy or unsafe in this moment I have hope. I know that the God of Peace is with me and will make me whole, healthy and safe- though I don’t see or feel it now.”
So, whatever crazies you’re dealing with right now – be it illness, deployment, relocation, retirement, new family member, finances, parenting, marriage or just trying not to accidentally pour the coffee into the sippie cup while flavoring your coffee with formula – remember: Peace is not a feeling. Peace is a choice. Peace is a series of decisions resulting in a state of being. Peace is a hope that looks back to a man suffering on a cross, hearing Him say, “It is finished,” just before committing His spirit into the Father’s hand; beside us to see the God of Peace who walks with us; ahead to see peace fulfilled.
