Jehovah Shalom

Sunday at church, the minister was continuing with his summer series on the names of God. We studied "The God of Peace" and it was so, so good. As Pastor Mark Key of the Central United Methodist Church here in Asheboro began sharing what Jehovah Shalom was all about, suddenly so many things started coming together in my heart. He started describing something I had been trying to put into words for a while, but just hadn't realized I was talking about peace. It was like a flood washing over me!

I've been "counseling" so to speak with a young woman who came into my life as a military widow back in January. Now, she is more like a sister. When she came for a visit earlier in the year, we sat and talked for hours about what she had been through with the death of her husband in Iraq. I told her so many things, but chief among them was this point that kept rising to the top.
I said, "It is so tempting to look right down at your feet where all your dreams lay shattered on the ground. Out of sheer exhaustion and pain you let your head hang there and stare at all you've lost. However, at some point, out of a sheer act of the will ... you must raise your gaze to the horizon of your life and you have to go against all your feelings and say, 'I don't know how God will do it ... but I believe that somehow He will make a way for me - that He's still in control of my life - and that He will use this for something good in the future.' You must say that before you feel it. If you wait until you feel it to say it ... it will never get said. However, if you can just get yourself to start saying it and believe it to be true ... eventually your feelings will follow. And then, it will become so."

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting this doctrine of claiming that a black convertible Beemer will appear in the driveway in Jesus' name and it will be there when you get up in the morning. But, what I do mean is that sometimes you just have to say and to yes, claim, the things you know to be true. When you are crushed and broken, you need to hear yourself say what you know to be true, even when you don't feel it. Especially when you don't feel it. If you are standing on what you know to be true, eventually, your feelings will trust again and follow you there. After hearing Pastor Mark's sermon, I realize that this is the very essence of what having "peace in the midst of the storm" is all about. It's not some cozy, warm-fuzzy feeling when the world is caving in around you. It is, rather, a steely knowledge that upholds you when every foundation in your life is shaking. It is clinging to the hope that God is the great "I Am" ... when you are the shattered "Who am I?" living in the world of "Where am I?" It is making yourself look to that, trusting that at some point you will not only believe it, but feel it's warmth again, too.

So Pastor Mark helped me put definition around what I had been thinking and saying for so long. He said that peace is not a feeling in the truest sense of the word. He said that peace is a choice ... a sheer act of the will. He said that it is a deep abiding knowledge that no matter what happens in our lives, we believe that ultimately, God is in control and our eternity is secure. That is peace that passes all understanding.

So that is what I was saying to my girlfriend. You choose to raise your gaze. You choose to say you trust Him. You choose to go against your feelings and say what you know to be true. You choose to have peace.

Then the healing comes.

Thanks Pastor Mark for your inspiring sermon. Thank you for showing me that all I've been saying for a long time now without realizing it, is that peace is a choice we make when everything inside us is raging. And it is worth it.

Choose peace, and eventually, you will feel peaceful.