In Search of Easy Peace
Like a River glorious is God's perfect peace,
Over all victorious in it's bright in-crease:
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Hidden in the Hallow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
by Frances R. Havergal
I love this hymn, it's beautiful. This hymn has had a lot of meaning in my life along with hymns such as "It Is Well" and "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult." I love that these hymns unabashedly address the challenge facing Christians of living with pain and struggles. What I think sometimes happens though with these songs and even with some of Scripture is that we begin to believe that our lives with Christ are going to be all peaches and cream by simply "letting it go- giving it to God." What do we do when our lives aren't peaches and cream? What if "letting it go" just gives us more? How do we continue to worship in spite of the pain and challenges we face? Does living for Christ mean an absence of pain? It doesn't take long for most of us to answer "no" to that question but I wonder how many of us live as though we believe God somehow owes us that. The truth is, the peace and hope we have in Christ may not look like the peace and hope we desire for ourselves. God's peace doesn't equal everything going our way to ensure our greatest comfort. No, God's peace exists even in the midst of turmoil and it's a much more subtle experience and we may feel as though it's not what we thought we had signed up for. God's peace, love, mercy, grace, and hope doesn't mean everything is going to be easy. Sin is still a factor in our lives and will be until we are with God and can truly experience "no more pain." Until then we must continue to challenge one another in the Christian community to worship in the face of pain.
Where have we been? Hmmmmm, that's a good question. We've been "around." Busy doing other things: life. Thanks to Ophelia and her teacher we've rediscovered the joy of drawing and painting. Art is often one of those things we don't have time for but we've been making time for it and have remembered how much we love it. Taking time to be creative is important, hope you can find a way to make that happen for you today.
posted by Jessica | 9:20 AM
1 Comments:
Boy, can Dennis and I relate to this! We look at our lives now compared to our lives 15 years ago and the world would tell us that God was not treating us very well!! Dennis' salary has dropped dramatically - and he was not really even very happy with what he was doing up until the accident and subsequent diagnosis of Grand Mal seizures! (Dropping in salary to do something you love is one thing, but ...)
However, we continue to see God's hand in all of this! Most importantly, we see that God protected our family for many years. While in the hospital, Dennis and I talked about the number of times he was driving with our whole family (and even other people's children) through the mountains of Colorado. The thoughts of what could have happened if he'd had a seizure during one of those times makes us know that God was protecting us and many others around us! So, as we worship in pain, we worship in gratitude!
Thanks for your thought-provoking posts, Jeremy and Jessica! I always enjoy reading here.
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