Peace in a Topsy-Turvy World

Lyn Thompson, Pastoral Care, CTCA/SRMC

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

How do you find peace when your country's in the middle of a war on terror and you suddenly realize your vulnerability for attack? How do you find it when your world is suddenly turned upside down with the loss of a loved one, the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease or financial loss that threatens to take your home, job, security? How do you find it when you're confronted every day with the ugly and evil side of life and the destruction it causes in people's lives or when the child you adore calls it quits and commits suicide?

In the Bible, Jesus once stood on a boat about to capsize in the middle of a storm and commanded the wind and waves, "Peace, be still." And they obeyed. The storm stopped, and the sea became calm.

But what can He do in your storm? One of His Names in the Bible is Jehovah Shalom, God, our peace. You want this peace. You need this peace. You feel like you're about to be sucked under in chaos, fear and impending disaster, and you feel lost. You want the storm to die down and calm to appear. Maybe you've even prayed, but nothing has changed. You want to know how to capture the promise in those words Jesus spoke, so they become reality in your situation.

The peace Jesus gives isn't always sent to stop the storms in our lives. Oh, He does do that sometimes. He does move to deliver in amazing ways and the tornado that was about to fling us into oblivion suddenly shifts course or dies.

But more often than not, Jesus works inside our lives to show us He's greater than the storms. That snapshot of Him in the boat isn't intended as a sort of magic wand we can wave over our circumstances "in His Name" and tell the storm to stop. It's a picture depicting the One in absolute control of all things, so we can quit fighting the storms in our own strength or despairing over them and turn to Him in trust.

That's when the peace of God, the shalom He promises that the world doesn't know and that "passes all understanding," comes flooding over us in the middle of the storm. Turning to Christ, as the disciples did who were in that boat with Jesus, makes the difference between being hit by the 175 mile per hour winds on the edges of a grade four hurricane and walking into the calm in the eye of it.

Having lost a spouse when my four children were all under the age of 13, battling cancer and losing part of my body to it, as well as undergoing severe financial and emotional strain, I have been through some storms. God didn't stop them from happening. But, He did answer my prayers. He delivered me out of them. What I've experienced is that when you trust Jesus in the storm, no matter what happens, what comes or how bad it gets, you're standing on bedrock ... God is bigger and greater than any evil the world dishes up. I've learned you can take God at His word when He says that if you love Him, He'll take what Satan means to harm us and somehow use it for good. I've encountered the peace of God's assurance that the pain or suffering we endure won't be wasted ... that there's purpose in it ... and that He's hurting with us ... He's right beside us ... as we go through the raging storm. Some people call that faith. But it's not the faith that gives peace -- it's the One the faith is in.

There will always be storms. There will always be disasters. If it's not the one you're currently in, it will be another. Life is full of trials, tribulations, difficulties, suffering and pain. That's part of our existence since sin and evil entered the world back in Adam and Eve's day. Some of us experience more of them than others, it seems. Some are worse than others. The Apostle Paul endured beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonment, riots, hunger, sleeplessness and was finally killed. Even a cursory read through the Bible gives you hundreds of examples of hurting people. Looking around you, reading a newspaper or watching television any given day gives you many more. Abuse and evil are rampant. You can't avoid trouble in this world unless you live in a bubble ... and even then, it's questionable.

And while we're not always delivered out of our problems, we can be delivered through them. And we can have God's peace in the middle of them. You may never have an answer for why you had to go through the storm, but you can know the One who always answers the person who trusts Him and who can command the wind and the waves to be still.