Peace

There is so much anxiety today, or at least there seems to be. Is there really any stress or anxiety? I mean really, can someone go out and get a bucket of it and bring it back and say "here it is, I got a bucket full of it!" However, we all feel it and perceive it as attacking us and just as real as going to get a bucket of water. Let me first say that I think it is real. It is real in the sense that things happen that are beyond our control. Jesus experienced it when he went to pray in the garden before his death. In Luke 22:44 it says, "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." So anxiety, pain, and anguish are real. When they are how do we find peace?

I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. John 14:25-27

We realize that we are not alone. We realize that God's presence is right here and right now. God in the form of the Holy Spirit is here. Jesus has redeemed all things back to himself and like he says here, "I'm leaving you well and whole." We are not abandoned. Much of our anxiety comes from the beliefs we have about being alone, that God is somewhere far off not paying attention to us. Somehow we have been left to figure this all out with no help. How our thoughts and feelings decieve us. Reality is that God is everywhere all the time. Will we believe that and be convinced that this is true? Can we sense and know that there is another reality at work other than the one that would like to present us with anxiety and worry? If we can there is great power for peace. Not peace that would make us feel excited or happy, but peace that gives us calmness and assurance. We can use our beliefs and convictions to tell our thoughts and feelings that lead to anxiety to go and sit in the back of the bus while we let our beliefs drive the bus. This is faith. This is the faith of someone growing, maturing, in relationship with Christ and beginning to transcend - or settles down from - the circumstances of life that so many people let drive their lives.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:6-7

Namaste'