The Promise is Peace

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

So, so many things to be troubled about in the world swirling around us from Nice to Dallas to Baton Rouge to our own homes.  Senseless acts of violence, tragic accidents.  It is so very difficult, sometimes, to not let a heart be broken - crushed even - with the events that come crashing down around us seemingly every day.

And.  The promise is peace.  The promise is that love conquers all.  The promise is that, although every day along with the exquisitely beautiful, when the world gives us the very bitterest of lemons, with the right frame of mind sweetness can come.  

Peace can come.

And it starts right here, in me, with my heart.  I ask for peace. I pray for peace. And the only way to make it happen is to be that peace. 

Oh, Lord of love, abide in me.  Guide my every word and act and step.  May I be an instrument of your peace here, now, with every being I encounter.  And with you, I will not be afraid.  I will live this life out loud, on purpose and in love.   

Published for God in the Life of Our Members, Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church, July 2016