Finding Perfect Peace in an Imperfect World

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee.” Isaiah 26:3

I have a true confession. I struggle with anxiety. I learned Isaiah 26:3 about thirty-four years ago when I was expecting my first child. I worried about everything; will he have ten fingers and ten toes? Will everything be okay?

It’s easy to read the first half of the verse and subscribe to the “perfect peace” part – sounds really good no matter what stage of life or what scary situation is staring you in the face. I really “get” the first part and wish there was a big period after the word, “peace”.  I wish it only read, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” No instructions or expectations or responsibility for me -- I like it that way.  Minds stayed on Him and trusting in Him…well, some situations come into our lives that make our hearts pound so hard that we don’t remember to keep our minds “stayed” anywhere except on the problems that multiply almost hourly. It is easier to wring our hands than to be still and pray…oh, yes…and to really listen. God is not necessarily on Central Daylight Time as you probably have noticed.

Remember the often quoted “Never doubt in the dark what God has taught you in the light.” That sounds good, too. It’s just that in our world we sometimes develop severe amnesia in the dark. When gasoline is $4 a gallon, the politicians (and excuse me…but is there a real expert out there on this issue?) can’t agree on whether to drill or not to drill, the housing market – which has long been a milestone of the thing called the American Dream – has taken such a beating…well, life on planet earth gives you plenty of opportunities to forget what you learned in the light, don’t you think? If you watch CNN or Fox News or any other network, you wonder if there is any light out there at all. And then there are situations I seem to run into everyday that make me realize how trivial the worries of gasoline or real estate dollars are, when life and death enter the picture.

I have recently watched a young friend deal with her mom’s cancer and bone marrow transplant in Houston on one day and then her four-year-old’s brain surgery to remove a tumor at the base of her brain the very next day in Birmingham. I have so appreciated the honesty of her e-mails – where the anxiety and the raw fear were not hidden – but always, always, there was that tone of certainty that “underneath are the everlasting arms.” The fact that my friend Helen has been able to be transparent, vulnerable, and oh-so-strong all at the same time, reveals a mind that has been ‘stayed on Him’ and has “trusted in Him” so consistently through her lifetime, that when life sent a curve like this one, she could call up that perfect peace that enables her to put one foot in front of the other with supernatural courage.

My exercise regimen for the last twenty years or so has been to go to the gym between 5:30 and 6:30a.m. every morning. One day several weeks ago, I realized the blinking heads bearing bad news with every thirty second report on the televisions in front of me, the fluorescent lights above me, and the sound of some pop diva singing lyrics that were not audible above the metal mix behind her surrounding me – all of this sensory stuff coming at me so early in the morning, was not doing a thing for my anxiety or my soul.  And so I did something radical – something I fear and hate almost as much as wrinkles and bones that creak when I climb out of bed every morning, I decided to make a change in my life.

I began taking a morning walk around the neighborhood instead. I have found that there is a stillness and a peaceful rhythm to the sound of the world waking up. For right now, it is a good thing – not just for my body, but for my soul and spirit. I try to do it right. At least I still sweat (which is also on my short list of things I am looking forward to not doing in heaven).

When you start to lose the ability to remember you have a soul at all, try remembering this: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?”  (Matthew 5:13). What is blocking your saltiness?

Then there is that third verse of the twenty-third Psalm, the first scripture most of us ever learned…”He restores my soul.” That provides comfort and stability and I have needed a lot of that lately with the many changes, anxiety and uncertainties about what comes next in life now that more of it is called the past than can be called the future. I think we all face that at some point and we reach down deep and hope that we have kept our mind stayed on Him often enough and trusted in Him often enough (kind of like conditioning and training) that somehow in the dark hours of life, we really do hear His voice above all the anxiety that is screaming at us from every front.

Life is hard. Those words are attributed to M. Scott Peck in his best seller, The Road Less Traveled, but the thought is certainly not original. Most everyone I know can say life has been hard at some point. The thing that should matter, however, to Christians, is that when life is hard and things like anxiety start to rob the peace that is part of the salt and light of our lives, we should intentionally take a time-out, and make a change or two. Do whatever it takes to get the mind stayed on Him so that His peace will come and your soul will be restored.

And P.S…. I think you will find more than a story or two that speak to you in this month’s MCL – either right where you are or right where you have been. And like always, we love to hear from you. Thanks for sharing the journey with us.