Time of My Life

I have something I certainly shouldn't have. I mean, I really shouldn't have this in my possession.

{No, I didn't take anything.}

It was given to me, free and clear.

By the world's estimation, I should be down right discouraged. My father has been out of well-paying job for two years, our house is in foreclosure, my mother has been battling breast cancer for four...and the list doesn't end there. Things have been rough, to say the least.

But I have peace. My parents have peace. We have peace.

It doesn't make any sense. It really doesn't.

There is hardly any worry about how the bills will get covered each month, if mom's cancer will get worse, or how our tummies will be filled from week to week. There's just this peace. A peace that completely overwhelms us and leaves little room for anything else.

It's true, the peace of God really does "surpass all comprehension" as confidently stated by Paul in his letter to the Philippians. Paul would know first-hand. The guy went through so many trials, it makes anything that I might encounter on this side of heaven seem pretty trivial {review Acts 21}.

But when I run back over the obstacles that my family faces day to day, I just have to shake my head in bewilderment. Such peace defies worldly logic at every turn, the quantity is never lacking and it's readily accessible to those who, in faith in Christ, trust Him.

"Faith leads to joy and peace. Paul has found - and if we only put it to the proof, we shall also find - that the simple exercise of simple faith fills the soul with "all joy and peace." Gladness in all its variety, and in full measure, calm repose in every kind, and abundant in its still depth, will pour into my heart as water does into a vessel on condition of my taking away the barrier and opening my heart through faith. Trust, and thou shalt be calm. In the measure of thy trust shall be the measure of thy joy and peace." - Alexander Maclaren

I simply can't get over it. And nor do I want to.

God is so good.

As Christmas came and went this year, somehow the realization of how marvelous the Prince of Peace's birth is comes into focus a bit more clearly.

Thank you, Lord for the peace You give that never ends. {And for the circumstances that made the supply so much more evident.}