Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Peace at the Center - May 17, 2011

Good Tuesday morning! The wind was supposed to stop last night. Who didn't ask the wind to stop? Hmm? Fall down in our weather intervention duties a bit, did we? I'm divided on the outcome last night. The wind blew from the south all night which is hard on my new plants, but my bedroom is on the north so I slept without the wind noise. The robins out back just had a hatching, but I'll stay clear and let them do their thing. I may try to get a few photos though. Time to rail at the moment.

Wind, I have written about the wind in devotionals and novels, but all my writing hasn't changed it one bit. I have talked about the wind with friends and both praised it and complained about it to God. Yet the wind still comes up for days at a time. The blowing rattles the windows and makes the plants sway about. I turn up the radio to drown out the noise, but it's still there. Constant pressure can drive a person to do things he or she might not normally do. I have read that the Santa Anna winds out in California make people crazy. It strikes me that sin or the temptation to sin acts in much the same way. Like a constant wind driving us batty, the temptation to sin beats on us daily amid the normal cares and worries of the day. At some point you may have committed a sin just to relieve the pressure. It might even have seemed to work for just a bit, but then the pressure came back. An important verse comes to mind - John 14:27

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

Why do you suppose Jesus made it a point to say this to the disciples? First of all we know from the next verse that Jesus would be leaving and that they should rejoice for him. However, we already know that the peace the world gives is an illusion and a temporary illusion at that. The wind may stop for an hour or a day, but we know that it will return. Giving in to temptation will relieve the pressure for just a short time, but the temptation will return in greater force. The peace of Jesus must be something greater. The end of the storm; the quiet of a calm sunrise; the silence in a library, these things can be easily broken. The peace of Jesus must not exist in circumstances or surroundings. Is the peace Jesus gives in Heaven? We read in Revelation where there will be or has been war in Heaven. And Jesus spoke of something he would leave with them, not something the disciples would gain in Heaven. The peace that Jesus gave to his disciples and to us must exist at the center.

While the world rages on the outside and the storm of temptation pressure assaults our minds, the peace of Jesus grows in our hearts. From the heart fed and tended by the Spirit grows the fruit of peace. This peace calms our minds and we look up in hope and joy as Jesus draws nearer with each day. The peace of Jesus can even calm the world around us a bit when others see that we have a hope they do not. Someone pushes and a Christ-one doesn't push back. Peace instead of vendetta when a Christ-one does not take vengeance for a wrong. We can make a difference around us when the peaceful fruit of the Spirit grows from our hearts.

Have a peaceful day in Christ, even as the wind demolishes any hint of calm outside.

Bucky

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