Friday, February 28, 2014

Surpassing understanding

What is the peace of God? We begin today with a bit of a dilemma. The Bible teaches a surprising premise. The peace of God surpasses understanding.

So...

if we can't understand it, then how on earth can we have it?

Good question. The answer is found in the question. On earth, we can not. I really, really believe this. Earth is filled with stress, anxiety, remorse, fear, depression, a certain lack of mental health.

I look around sometimes and I'm the only one in the office and our volunteering system is broken and I wonder just how easy and fruitful it would be if we had a secretary and paid staff, youth leader, choir director, Sunday School and small groups person, accountant, etc.

Then I read today that Megachurch pastor Perry Noble (which in full disclosure I had never heard of) suffers from depression and has had suicidal thoughts. Now I have never been to a true Megachurch I reckon unless one considers the The Church in Brentwood, Tn., I attended one Sunday. I know nothing of them, but I would imagine they have substantial staffing.

And still the pressure, the stress, the anxiety exists. It isn't the size of the church that matters it seems as much as the ability to surrender to a peace that surpasses understanding.

Some, it seems, medically have less ability to do this than others. It has, I am suggesting, little to do with the amount of faith one has, a common mistake.

Noble said this in an interview: There are zero examples in the Bible of people who had it all together."

That's absolutely true. Nothing is more important for people to understand. I once heard a preacher say you had to become clean before you came to Christ; you had to get right with God before He would get right with you.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, and that thought process keeps us from Him many times.

So, today I simply want you to understand the depth of the reckless love of God for you. He has pursued you across millenium, waited for you to be born so that he could dote on you, so that he could give you the peace that Jesus said the world can not give.

Imagine the water running lazily along a brook path. Imagine a snowy day and you watching it from inside a home that has a blazing fire in the fireplace, with a mug of hot cocoa steaming in your hand. Imagine a cool breeze on a sunny day in a Midwest farm's fall day as drying stalks of corn move gently in the wind. Imagine all this, and that's as close as I can come to telling you how peace might be.

It's not the absence of conflict. It's the presence of Jesus.

It's enough to know He loves sometimes. Sometimes we need to be shown. He's willing to do it.

Peace be with you.

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