God's Peace

What do folks mean when they say, "God's peace be with you"? Will the phrase take on a different meaning now that Congress is led by the Democrat party? Or had the phrase already taken on a different meaning since the terrorizing events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent War-on-Terror?
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I believe that if your vision of God looks like this: He sees you when you’re sleeping; he knows when you're awake; he knows if you've been bad or good. So, be good for goodness sake, you're probably real disappointed in the job God's doing!

An old Jewish proverb says, God is not a kindly old uncle, God is an earthquake. Beneath the saying are layers of meaning:
• Is God's "job" simply to keep the universe well-hinged so we can go on about our merry business without taking into account what God might intend for the universe?
• Is God so predictable that God is unwilling to shake things up to remind us that the universe's hinges don't swing as widely or as smoothly for all the creatures of the earth who are made in God's image and likeness?
• Is God's face and God's hand so good that we're only willing to look for, and discover, the face and grasp of God in what we define as comfortable?

What if the Lord's peace is mostly, and best, experienced when we participate in God's mission for the world? Where would you begin to look for what it is that God is doing in the world? How would you decide that God is inviting you to participate in this or that piece of God's total effort in behalf of the world?

If this all seems too complex - do yourself, the rest of us, and God a favor – narrow the focus. Sharpen it up a bit, too. Instead of looking at the whole wide world that's in God's hands, look to your own world, where the face of God shines on you - the apple of God's eye. Here's a way to do that.

For the next two days jot down on a piece of paper every irk, quirk, twitch, pang, and gasp you feel. Identify its source. What were you doing and thinking just before you felt it? What action did you most want to take because of what you felt? Take your list to God in prayer at the end of the day - Psalm 103 is good for this. Ask God to let you know where God might be leading you by means of these feelings. Is God drastically altering the tectonic plates of your life's foundation; or is God guiding your feet into a new faith's shifting sands?

You might also consider sharing your new found answers, as well as any new questions raised, with a trusted friend. That’s what a young girl named Mary, who was alert for God’s new-ways, and acutely interested in discerning her understanding, did. She reviewed her new insights with a trusted relative, her cousin, Elizabeth, another woman alert to and acute for the will of God breaking into her life in unexpected ways.

If you're used to looking for God in familiar places; if you've become accustomed to finding God in predictably safe places, God's got to do something unusual to let you know God has something new in mind to lead you through!

Writing to believers tempted by teachings of false certainty about their relationship with God, Paul wrote: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:4-7).

Even if your prayer causes you to say, "uncle," (or auntie) God won't let you go!