Where Do You Find Peace?

Peace.

According to the dictionary, peace is freedom from disturbance; tranquility.

Does that sound like your life? Not mine. No way, no how.

I have three kids at home, two teenagers and a pre-teen. Do I have peace there? Not very often.

Work is busy, demanding, stressful. I leave work looking for peace.

 I step outside and hear sirens, cars, people. No peace. No tranquility.

I turn on the news. Is it that I live in the wrong place? Is there peace somewhere else? Not hardly.

So, where in this noisy world do you go to find peace?

There are escapes, but they are only temporary. You can run from disturbances and noise, but you cannot hide.

When we "go on vacation," how many of us are ever more than a couple feet away from our cellphones? When we "unwind," how long does that last? When was the last time you felt peace, true freedom from disturbance. True tranquility? How long did it last?

The answer to lasting peace is not a place. Nor is it something you do. The answer to peace is a person.

Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:14 says, "For He Himself is our peace . . ."

Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

Philippians 4:7 reads, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 

Do you see the pattern? Do you understand the theme? 

It is Jesus, and only Him.

If you try to find peace any other way, you will not find it. Not really. Not a peace that lasts.

So when the hustle and bustle invades, as it always does, find your peace in Him who never fails. 

Baby, It's Cold . . . Inside?

Winter is here. We avoided it for a while, but like an overdue bill, it showed up again--with interest. Snow. Ice. Wind. Cold. More snow. More ice. More cold. The sun barely shines, and when it does, it feels like I've been cheated, because it never warms anything up.

There's that old expression--the dead of winter. That phrase is so apt and fitting. While my wife likes the snow and sees it as beautiful and wondrous, I see it as bleak and barren. So pale. So lifeless. So . . . cold.

Baby, it is cold out there, and if the meteorologists are correct--which, unfortunately, they have been lately--it's going to get colder.

As I said, my wife really likes winter. She enjoys snuggling in with fleece and flannel. She finds joy in being inside baking, reading, being with the kids and even being with me--for some reason. And she can look out that window, frosted as it may be, and see beauty, life, goodness. It warms her heart. I'm serious--this wonderful woman actually gets even more cheerful the worse the weather gets.

I do not.

Now don't get me wrong--I get excited when a big snowstorm is coming. I love bad weather. In the summer I'm out in the storms, feeling the rumble of the thunder in my chest and wondering at the power, the majesty. I always think of Revelation Chapter 4 where John describes the throne room of God as reverberating with lighting and thunder.

And the few times I've seen/heard thunder-snow--that's incredible. The lightning is so incredibly white and bright reflecting off the snow, and the thunder. . . it's just different. Loud and yet muffled at the same time. Pretty cool.

I see the power and majesty of God through His creation, and I know the rain and the snow both come from Him. But I will take a good old thunderstorm after a 90 degree heat wave over a snowstorm and 0 degree weather any day.

The cold makes me feel, well, cold.

And not just on the outside, but the inside. I know there is a medical condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, fittingly), but that's not what I'm talking about. I may not like the short days of winter, but as long as the temps don't drop too far, I'm fine.

But when it gets cold--and I mean really cold--like below 30 (not 30 below, below 30), I've had enough. I still go out and hunt, go ice fishing, still change the oil in our vehicles, shovel the snow, throw snowballs at the kids and all that, but I don't like it. Snow would be great, if it was 80 degrees.

The problem isn't that I'm physically cold--I've got the clothes and understand the idea of layering (the guy I hunt with laughs at the "suitcase" I bring with me).  It doesn't matter how warm I am. I can be sweating, and still I complain about the cold. The problem is I'm cold on the inside. I feel cold because it looks cold.

That window in the picture at the top of this blog--it's all frosted over. Now, probably, it's warm inside that house. But looking through that frost makes me think it's cold. I'm not cold, but I feel cold. The power of suggestion, I guess.

I think we do the same thing in a lot of aspects of our lives. Let's say someone at work is having a bad day. I might be having a good day, but when I realize someone else isn't, all the sudden my day isn't so good. I let someone else's bad day become my bad day. Just like looking out that frosted window made me feel cold. I wasn't cold--I wasn't having a bad day--until I saw it. Then I felt it. Ever have that happen?

Or have you ever been tempted by something that you normally would not be tempted by until you saw someone else do it? Or wanted something you never wanted before until someone else had one? Ever let someone else's bad habits creep into your life? Ever doubt God's presence because someone else told you He wasn't there? Ever feel spiritually cold because the world is?

Baby, it is cold outside. But we don't have to be cold in here, and by "in here" I mean in God's presence. In God's family. In His arms. And that's where we are. Every one of us who believes.

Just like I'm in a warm house, or a warm car, or warm clothes. It may be cold all around me but I am warm. There is spiritual coldness and in fact death all around us. We live in a spiritually dead world. But we are alive! We are warm! We are sheltered. We are safe. We are surrounded by the light and, in fact, are to be lights ourselves.

It's a cold and dark world out there, but don't let it chill that flame inside you.

There Is Hope

On this third day of a new year, one in which I have resolved to be more like the One whom I follow, (see my last blog here) I have already found it incredibly easy to fall into old habits. And, as you may suspect, these habits are not ones which will help me become who I want to be.

Habits are interesting little phenomena. They are formed (sometimes knowingly and sometimes not) by repetition. Do anything enough times and it will most likely become a habit. My daughter just walked out of the room we were both in and shut off the light--leaving me in the dark! She didn't do it intentionally, she didn't think about it, she just did because it was--you guessed it--a habit.

Now, had she stopped to think, I'm pretty sure she would not have purposely left dear old dad in the dark of night. But she wasn't thinking about that. She was focused on where she was going, what she was going to do next, and just automatically hit that little switch on her way by. She didn't even realize it, at least not until I said something.

That's a habit, and our lives are full of them. My wife moves the kitchen faucet to the middle of the sink every time she walks by because, as a child, their faucet tended to drip and they were trained to make it drip on the divider of the double sink so that the sound of drip, drip, drip didn't resonate through the house--especially to the bedroom of her parents. Now, we've been married 21 years, and in all those years our kitchen faucet has not dripped. But guess what my wife still does!

In the same way, I'm pretty sure my son cannot watch a movie without eating popcorn, even if we just left a restaurant, because that's what you do at a movie. And our scrappy middle child cannot, simply can not do anything without making it a competition, with herself if no one else.

These are not bad habits necessarily, but certainly they are not necessary habits. They are just rote reactions we learn over the years. Some are good, like washing your hands after going to the bathroom, or picking up after yourself, or an untold number of other good and ordinary things we do every day.

Those are not the kind of habits I find myself battling against. I only wish it were so simple.

The habits I find myself struggling to break are ones of the mind--what I think, how I think, and why I think it. My habit is negativity.

I'm a glass half empty kind of person. You may call me a pessimist, but I prefer realist. That glass may be half full, but I know for sure it's half empty. And of course, things could probably be worse, but I'm 100% positive they could be better. It's not as cold as it could be, but it's not as warm as I'd like it. You get the point.

I'm not quite Grumpy from the Brothers Grimm tale of Snow White, but I'm no Pollyanna either. I tend to see the darkness, the flaws, the potholes, the things that could go wrong. It's hard for me to not let one bad apple spoil the whole basket. I'm more like the Solomon of Ecclesiastes who said, everything is meaningless and a chasing of the wind, than I am like the Solomon of Proverbs who said, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Now Solomon was a wise man, and he said both of those things. And I believe that he was inspired by God, so both are true. The difference is, one is an observation (everything apart from God is meaningless), and the other is a way of life (trust God, and everything will work out). My habit has been to confuse the two.

I'm inclined to see the meaninglessness and futility of life Solomon observed as the only reality. It's a habit, one a psychoanalyst may be able to explain, but I cannot. All I know is that I expect the worst, see the bad, and often miss the better things in life because of it.

That, my friends, is what we might call a bad habit. A really bad habit.

Because that's not the world we--including myself--live in.

We (and I'm talking to you and me), live in a world where there is hope.

Solomon spoke of hope in that if we trust God and not ourselves, He will lead us, and where He leads us will be green pastures and still waters (Solomon no doubt learned that from his dad). Paul spoke of hope in Ephesians 1:18-19 when he said, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. . . "

The hope to which he has called us. Riches and glorious inheritance. Incomparably great power. Salvation. Redemption. Forgiveness. Love. Security. Safety. Provision. The list goes on and on.

Hope. Hope. HOPE! Not negativity. Not futility and meaninglessness. Not the potholes and the flaws and the darkness but the light and the love and the hope that is Jesus Christ. That is what I should tend towards, that is what I should see, that is what I need to train myself to remember and understand and apply to every thing and every day. That glass may very well be half empty, but as Christ made water to wine, He can certainly fill it up to overflowing.

So this habit, this rote reaction of negativity is now my enemy, my nemesis. I doubt very much that I shall soon be walking around spouting rainbows and unicorns, but I shall strive to no longer walk under a storm cloud of doom and gloom. As I have trained myself to not move the kitchen faucet away from the middle of the sink, so shall I, trusting in the grace and power of God, train myself to not dwell on the negative.

Depending on who you listen to, it takes anywhere from 21 to almost 300 days to form a lasting habit.

Today is day one for me.

What about you?

In This New Year, Who Do You Want To Be?

Yep, it's a new year. Time for all those resolutions, goals, start-overs and new beginnings. Spoiler alert--most of them will fail. They'll fail for a variety of reasons, but one big one is that they are not who we are, and won't help us be who we want to be.

If I resolve to climb Mt Everest this year, I'm going to fail. I don't like heights, I don't like the idea of traveling, I hate being cold, and I really have no interest in devoting my life to risking my life. That's just not who I am, nor who I want to be.

The same goes for resolving to spend hundreds of hours this year training to run a marathon. It's not that running a marathon is bad, it's just not me right now. I don't want to take the time, put in the effort, and bear the inevitable aches and pains. Some day maybe, but today that's not who I am or even who I want to be.

See what I'm saying? If I set goals that don't match who I am, or even who I want to be--who I really want to be, I'm nearly certain to fail. Especially if those goals are at all worthwhile.

Most things in this life that are worthwhile don't come easy. That's a fact. They take work, effort, persistence, and often a significant amount of pain--of one kind or another. I'm not going to go through that unless I have a really good reason, unless it's going to help me be who I want to be.

So that begs the question, "Who do I want to be?"

To answer that, I have to know who I am today; and honestly, that's not as easy as one may think.

Who I am encompasses a lot. I'm a husband. A father. A son. An uncle, a nephew, cousin. A healthcare worker. A friend. A member of a church. I'm a man, an American, a hunter and fisherman. I enjoy the outdoors and being active, but also reading and doing puzzles. I'm patient with things but not with people. I'm no genius but I'm not totally dense. Most importantly, I am a Christian.

Being a Christian is the most important thing because it means that I am a son of God. I have been called into His family, accepted into His presence not because of those things about me I listed above, but because of Jesus Christ. I am forgiven of my sins, and I am empowered by God to overcome this life for His purposes. I am saved. I am redeemed, and that's what really matters.

Now, could I just stop there and be comfortable knowing that I have the most important part of my identity figured out? I have accepted Jesus. I am saved. Nothing else really matters. Does it?

Yes, it does.

It really, really does.

Because you see, being a Christian means that I am a follower of Jesus. God has called me to be His son, and I want to be. I want to please my Father. I want to follow in the footsteps of my "Big Brother." I want to be like Christ, and truth be told, in so many ways I am not.

And so, there we are.

Who do I want to be? I want to be like Christ. I want to be a son who will please my Father, who will make Him proud. I want to be not just a good guy, but a real man. A true disciple. A devoted follower.

So this year, that's what I resolve. I resolve to become more like the One I follow. What that means exactly will be revealed day by day, hour by hour. It will take work. It will require persistence. It will sometimes result in pain, but I'm willing. I'm willing and I'm ready because I know who I am and I know who I want to be.

This is my first step.

What's yours?

I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
 
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

Did you find yourself singing that blessed old hymn? I bet many of you did. Not just the first verse, but the rest as well. I still am, just in my head, of course, where even I can sing well. Those words are powerful, moving, and stir my soul.

My only question is, do I?

Do I truly surrender all to Jesus? To Him do I freely give all? All that I have. All that I am. All that I need, and want, and fear, and foresee, and . . . everything else. Can I truly say that I give it all to Him?

I know I should. I know I can. I know He will accept it. But will I give? Will I give it all to Him?

What does that mean, anyway? To give it all to Jesus. If I give my possessions to Jesus, does that mean I empty my savings accounts into the offering plate and sign my house over to the church? To give my life to Him do I have to quit my job, live in poverty, and go live in the jungle as a missionary?

Maybe, but not necessarily. To give all to Him means to give up control. That means He may appoint me as steward over what He has given me, to govern and care for a certain set of possessions. It may also mean giving it away. It depends on what He tells me to do.

To give my children to God does not mean I don't have to care for them, nurture them, raise them and provide for them. I give them to Him and He in turns appoints me to watch over them. I have no less responsibility, I still have authority over them, but they are not truly mine. They belong to Him and are simply, for a time, in my care.

And so it is with all things. To give all to Jesus means to understand that whatever we have is not really ours. Everything was created by God, through God, for God. In opposition to common belief, God did not create this world for us. He created it for His glory, and appointed us as caretakers. He did not give it to us, it still belongs to Him.

The trials and struggles we go through also are not ours, because our very lives, and the lives of our family are not ours or theirs. Everyone is held in God's hand. He alone is sovereign. He alone has final say over what does, or does not, happen. We cannot hold too tightly to either the good or the hard, because neither are ours.

To say we give all to Jesus is simply to acknowledge reality. It is already His. We really can not give it to Him because He already has it. What we are doing is accepting the truth. We are facing the reality of what is. I cannot surrender possession that is not mine. What I surrender is any false sense of ownership I might be holding on to.

To surrender all to Jesus means, as those words above say, to trust Him. To really believe that I am living in His presence. To humbly bow at the feet of the Almighty, relinquishing control of every last thing, including my very life, over to Him.

So what are you holding on to? What have you not yet surrendered? Give it to Jesus. Allow Him to take it, and replace it with something infinitely better--His peace. His love. His power.

Give up those fears. Let go of those insecurities. Loosen your grip on your future. Because none of those are yours. They belong to Him. Let Him have them, and see what a true Master can do.

Fear

We all experience it. Every one of us. That awful, awesome, visceral feeling of facing the known or unknown which causes us trepidation and unrest. Sweaty palms. Racing heart. That pit deep in your belly. Despair. Hopelessness. Insufficiency.

You know the feeling.

It affects us, this specter of fear. And specter it is, for it has neither body nor form, can be neither touched nor heard nor sensed in any physical sense but it exists just the same. It is real. As real as is love, as real as is pain. As certain as the cold bite of winter chilling our bones, though we can see neither.

Fear.

It can save your life, or end it. Drive you to seek shelter, or to run blindly into the storm. It can cause the weak to achieve the impossible, and the strong to do nothing. Fear can destroy. Fear can fortify.

Truly awesome is this insubstantial phantom of fear.

Solomon said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and also, "The fear of the Lord leads to life."   Jesus said, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

That is the kind of fear which can save your life. The kind of fear which can cause the weak to achieve the impossible. Fear can fortify.

Fear can also destroy.

Gideon was so paralyzed by fear that though he was a mighty warrior, he was afraid to act. The entire Israelite nation were so afraid that they refused to enter the good land God had prepared for them, and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

The stories go on and on. What's amazing is what happens when people truly fear God more than they fear this world. Gideon conquered an army of 135,000 with 300 men. Caleb and Joshua were the only two from an entire generation of Israelites to see the Promised land. Daniel survived a night in a pit of lions. Jonah was saved from certain death.

Do you see the theme here?

Fear of this world gets you nowhere. Fear of God can take you anywhere.

When that feeling of trepidation comes over you, when your heart races and your mind spins, ask yourself, "What am I afraid of?" Is it more dangerous than lions? Is it more mighty than 135,000 trained warriors? Is that thing or person bigger than Almighty God?

No. It's not. Whatever it is, it's not.

Take a deep breath. Remember Daniel. Remember Joseph. Remember Paul, and Moses, and Abraham, and David and . . . remember God.

Fear Him, and Him alone. For if He be with you, who can stand against you?

Attitude Isn't Everything--But It's A Lot

You've probably seen one of those motivational posters, or maybe a post on social media espousing Attitude is EVERYTHING. Well, I disagree. Sort of.

You can have the best attitude in the world and still have the worst day. Conversely, you can have the worst attitude possible and have everything work out. Some days you do your best, and fail. Other days, despite your worst efforts, God smiles on you.

Attitude isn't everything.

But it is important.

Philippians 2:14 says that we are to Do everything without complaining or arguing. That's all about attitude. It means not only doing what we are supposed to do, but doing so willingly and even--Gasp!--cheerfully. We are not only supposed to do good, we are to do good with the right attitude.

Why? Well, the next verse tells us why. So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the 
universe . . .

Wow. That's a pretty good reason for having the right attitude.

Paul had more words of advise on attitude for the church in Philippi. In Philippians 4:8 he instructs them, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. 

If that's not about attitude, I don't know what is. He tells them, and God tells us, that we should be thinking about the true, the noble, the right, the pure, the lovely, the admirable--anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. Think about those things. Don't spend your time thinking about what is false, what is ignoble, what is wrong, what is impure, what is unlovely, what is not admirable--don't waste your time on anything that is not excellent or praiseworthy.

I bet if we did that, all the time--only thought about those good and right things and let everything else go--our attitudes would be a whole lot better. I know mine would.

Here's another one. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men. And the reason for this one? It's in the next verse as well. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. 

We don't live for this world. We don't work for this world. We don't exist for this world alone. How different would our lives be if our attitudes reflected that?

There are so many more. Paul starts Colossians 3 with, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Christ said to love God and love our neighbors as the first and second-most commandments. He also said If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all (Mark 9:35). Now that's an attitude adjustment, at least for me, most of the time!

 In my own personal experience, my attitude reflects the status of my relationship with God. When I'm tight with God, my attitude reflects Him. When I'm not, it doesn't. For me, it really is that simple.

My point is this: Attitude isn't everything--God is everything. But our attitudes are so very important to how we respond to God, how we obey God, how we reflect Jesus Christ to the world. So to that end . . .

Attitude isn't everything, but it is a lot!