Practicing peace...............

Taken from our driveway on the day the fire entered the city.

I'm sitting here thinking that I should have something to say after a week like we have had.  But I'm exhausted.  My brain is a bit numb.  Colorado Springs Waldo Canyon Fire; 16,000 acres burned, 346 homes destroyed, more than 35,000 people to evacuate, 2 die and the fire still burns after 6 days.   I didn't lose a home, but I know those who have. In our church alone there were 74 families that lost their homes and 203 homes sustained some damage...so far.  512 members were displaced; all this just in one church. We have a family living with us and they didn't lose a home, but they still cannot return to their home.  They wait grateful they still have a home, but the unknown can be exhausting. How do I wrap my head around more devastation? Just 12 weeks ago I lost one of the things I held most precious, my oldest son.


With all the chaos spinning around me in the last two months there has been one thought that has continued to swarm through my mind, "....the peace that surpasses ALL understanding is just waiting for me."  How does one obtain or maintain that kind of peace amongst the storms of life?  Finding that kind of peace brings real freedom; freedom from needing to control all that spins around me.


I was reading Philippians 4:6-9 the other day and I realized why I have had this incredible peace through Ryan's death and through these crazy fires; because I have been "practicing peace".



Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.


Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Freedom to receive peace in the darkness

As I put into practice filling my mind with God's truths and believing that what He promises will hold true, I receive that peace that surpasses ALL understanding.


It is a moment by moment, day by day choice I must make to practice peace. 

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.  

John 8:32