Perfect Peace

In the craziness of last week, I forgot to do a Fruit of the Spirit.  Here is the one I missed: peace.

Love was my elderly great-grandmother.  Joy was a widowed 63 year old woman from El Salvador.  You may expect Peace to be my aged neighbor or an older teacher I once had.  You would be wrong.  Peace is not old.  Peace is not a woman.

Peace is an eighteen year old young man who I met four years ago at a high school football game.

That may seem like the most unlikely candidate, but I believe anyone who knows him will agree.  Through all the craziness of high school drama and college decisions, Peace trusted the Lord to provide.  He was never short on problems and challenges; He didn't have it easier or less frustrating than the rest of us.  But Peace had something that so many lacked in.

Peace had whole-hearted faith in the Lord.  Those who have studied the Bible will know, peace is not the absence of trouble.  If it was so, Jesus would have never promised it to his followers.  Rather, peace is the result of having faith that the Lord's will always wins out in the end, and that it is good and pleasing and perfect.

In times of struggle, Peace had faith.

In times of frustration, Peace had faith.

In times of darkness, Peace had faith.

In times of sorrow, Peace had faith.

And although he was not always happy, didn't always know the right answer, and wasn't always free of worry, he always had faith.

Peace is not a place.  You aren't ever at peace.  You have peace.  It is a gift from God, bought at the price of His son, that comes from having faith in the fact that we are God's children and we need not fear.  After all, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  True peace comes from remembering this, even when all else seems to fail.

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." -Psalm 26:3-4

To my friend Aaron.  May you always trust and have perfect peace.