"Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
Many of you will recognize those lines from the classic hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." The song reminds us that Jesus is a friend who is near and dear to us and is just a prayer away. It also laments the fact that far too often we seem to prefer the drama and trauma of life over the peace that God offers through Jesus Christ.
We may not realize it, but some of us have consistently chosen the broken and fragmented pieces of happiness and success that the world offers instead of the full-fledged peace of God, which passes understanding.
Some of us have chosen to be in relationships where we settle for a piece of someone who is already married or in some other way unavailable.
Others of us settle for the fleeting pieces of joy that drugs and alcohol provide or chase after the elusive pieces of intimacy found in the beds of strangers and other persons not committed to us.
The gym or the workplace can even become objects of obsession in which we desperately look to our physical or professional statures to fill in the missing pieces of our self-esteem.
On the extreme end, cutting and self-mutilation are desperate attempts at finding and feeling peace. Tattooing and piercing could also be included somewhere along this spectrum as they are also forms of inflicting bodily pain to provide a sense of release and peace. For some, these acts do provide some sense of satisfaction, and generate desired extra attention, but they simply cannot provide true peace, which is why one cut, one piercing, or one tattoo is never enough.
One of the many names for God is El Shaddai, the all sufficient God, the God who is more than enough. So, if God is more than enough, yet we keep looking to things that are never enough, why are we surprised when we get caught up in a merry-go-round, getting dizzier by the round or even worse, spinning out of control?
Some of us take great pride in our pieces of peace and take great offense at the suggestion that they could be in any way harmful or out of order. Like mismatched pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we have force fit the various pieces together and have created an image of ourselves that is a distortion of the proportions God originally designed for us, but we can't handle the truth about our condition. And so, we sail further and further away from the shore, thinking all is well because there are so many others who are also out to sea.
Thankfully, no matter how far from the peaceful shore we have sailed and travailed while chasing after pieces of a dream, the Master of the sea can hear our despairing cry and lift us out. Through the grace of God we can stop settling for fleeting moments of peace and fully embrace the peace that only God can give.
God's peace is a gift to us, one that should not be taken lightly, and certainly one that should not be so thoughtlessly rejected in favor of the paltry substitutes we so naively accept.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." (John 14:27 New Living Translation)
God's peace is not available in stores, but there is an abundant supply in store for all who ask. So...ask! And, remember, peace in, peace out!
BNcouraged!
Rev. Karen
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