Monday, July 11, 2016

Peace...Be Still!

Monday, July 11, 2016

Arise, O Lord, in anger!
    Stand up against the fury of my 
       enemies!
    Wake up, my God, and bring 
       justice!
End the evil of those who are 
       wicked,
       and defend the righteous.
For you look deep within the mind 
       and heart, O righteous God.   
Psalm 7:6, 9(NLT)

When human anger gets out of hand I can barely think. 

And it’s not just my anger; it’s anyone’s anger!

Anger is as paralyzing as fear or first love.

With the emphasis in recent years on media coverage of crowds in an uproar over the most recent shooting of a citizen by a police officer, it has become a routine of mine, when confronted with a new incident to immediately pray for the family of the one who was shot, the officer and his/her family, and their community. 

And then I pray:  peace…be still!

I know I do not control the winds of any storm, but when my mind is reeling from seeing and hearing the anger, I always have that picture in my mind’s-eye of Jesus standing in the boat with his disciples, after having walked on those stormy waters, holding-up his hands, and commanding, peace, be still![ii] 

I’m not commanding; I’m asking Jesus to do it again for our human family, that officer, that family and their community.

To say that we have an anger problem in our culture would be to understate it by as far as east is from west! 
          ·       You see protest upon protest reflecting our 
                   culture’s boiling temperature, and 
                   beating us black and blue over police 
                   shootings 
          ·       Sit-ins, occupying this and that…
          ·       Political debate turning into character 
                  massacre
          ·       Rage on the roads
          ·       Facebook face-offs and melt-downs.

So, where does it stop?  Will there ever be a renewal of peace in the community? 

Will Andy Taylor, Barney Fife, Opie, and Miss Bea ever be heard from again?

And what would or could bring it about?

I fear I have no answers for any of that; only the image of a man…more accurately, a man-god, walking calmly on tempestuous waters, and then speaking the words that change everything:  peace…be still!

And I have hope.

For You Today

There cannot be peace in the community that isn’t in the heart first. 

So, perhaps this is a good start for this morning:  let Jesus speak to your heart those words, peace…be still!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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NOTES
[i] Title Images: By Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons and Brett Gustafson, via Wikimedia Commons
[ii] Matthew 14:22-35

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