Peace? What peace?

Earlier this week a friend asked me quite pointedly, "Is my husband going to die?" 

I sat across a little wooden coffee shop table, looking into the etched face of a woman who knew just as well as I did that I could not possibly have the answer for her, yet needed to hear a voice of reassurance. She needed a friend for comfort, to help hold her steady.  

What does Jesus even mean when he says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" when he knows very well how we deal with sorrowful and scary circumstances - matters of the heart that are much too heavy for us to bear? Things sometimes leave us or those we care about feeling overpowered and wrecked, without any sense of actual peace. 

"Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." -end of same peace verse. To think that Jesus had that much confidence in his counsel to his ever-failing disciples. To think that Jesus has that much confidence in his counsel to his people today, 2022! You, (fill in the blank with your name), don't let your heart be troubled! Don't let it be afraid~ says your Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit is the key in this great, mysterious, peace-pursuing endeavor.

But the heart troubles, the crippling fear, the tears that just never end; sometimes the decision to numb the pain and not care anymore... 

I've always said, if I had been okay with drinking, however mild or controlled, I know I'd have turned to alcohol again and again in my early days of fostering. There were many days and nights of no peace within the walls of my home, even to the depths of my soul. The conflict of another's soul finds its way into yours, finding some part of you that it can identify with, and burrows there. 

It was only a brief pause before I answered my friend's imploring question across the wooden table. "Only God can answer that." That may have sounded cliche, but it was the only right thing I could say. We visited a few more moments, prayed together, then parted ways. The next evening she got in touch and shared some pretty incredible news. 

After coffee, she had felt an urge to make a phone call to see if by some slim chance the weeks-away doctor's appointment might be moved up. Lo and behold, that request worked, and in less than twenty-four hours the procedure was done. All the dread, the anxiety, the sleeplessness, the wondering if God was listening, was concerned, was interested in her problems was sacked- completely wiped away! My friend was smiling so big, so aware that her Father had intervened and moved through her to bring peace. This giant mountain that stood in her way was shrunk down to the size of a small mound of dirt she could easily tread over. 

Life moments like this, no matter how insignificant it might be to one person, can be monumental to another, and all the while our God is always at work, intimately interested in revealing his peace.