Calm Me Lord

Be anxious about nothing, but by prayer and with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus..... Philippians 4:6-7

This morning as I studied this verse in my devotional time, I was reminded when we let worry and anxiety consumes us, we are trying to do God's work. All worrying does is tell us we need to be king, because God can't handle our stuff.

How many nights have we wasted on worry instead of the rest we know our bodies need? How many times have we strolled through social media news feeds and felt the anxiety of drama filled lives played out in rants and fits of anger? How often have we prayed for our situations, but we already have our minds set on impending doom and really don't expect God to do anything about it? How many times to we blurt out our concerns to God and leave His presence much like the way we came in?

That is not the prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that Paul speaks about. He talks about entering the presence of God in a spirit of worship and praise, to turn our focus on our Creator, His awesome power and His everlasting love.

God already knows our lives are a mess, so coming before Him with all our messy situations, our fears or our broken hearts is no surprise to Him. Our lives could never be any messier than David, a man after God's own heart. We are just as important and our worries and concerns are just as important to God as David's were when he was in trouble and cried out for help over and over again.

In Psalm 86: 15-16 David wrote: " But you O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth. Oh, turn to me and have mercy on me! Give Your strength to Your servant and save the son of Your maidservant".

Imagine never worrying about anything! It seems like an impossibility not to worry, but Paul's advice is to turn our worries into prayers.

And David reminds us of the Character of God;

First, God is loving, gracious, extremely patient, full of mercy and trustworthiness. He never changes and is always the same. The character of God is the bedrock of the Christian faith.
Second, remember the power of prayer. David did not pray in generalities, he asked God for specific things in his time of trouble. He asked God for his presence("turn to me") God's mercy, God's strength, God's deliverance, ("save the son"). Who could ever need more than that?

I have learned that anxiety and peace cannot co-exist. When I am anxious and can't sleep, I find that my focus is on myself, leaving my spirit restless and without peace. But when I turn my focus toward the One who is truly in control of all things, my spirit calms and my anxiety fades.
 Philippians 4:6 tells me the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. God's peace is different than the world's peace. True peace can not be found in positive thinking, in absence of conflict or in good feelings. True peace comes from knowing God is in control.

God knows our situations even before they happen and I think he is waiting to see if we will turn to Him as He has told us in His word or if we will get all bent out of shape trying to handle things ourselves.

"While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority"...A W Tozer

In times of anxiety and stress, a simple prayer can bring the "Peace of God" that Paul is talking about......"give it to God and let Him worry" Martin Luther

Calm me O Lord, as you calmed the storm. Keep me from harm. Let all tumult within me cease. Enfold me Lord in you peace. 

When The King really rules our world, we really don't need to worry.

At A Distance

As the end of our 2nd year on the Atlantic Coast approaches, I reflect on what was and look forward to what will be, but "what is" is the reality at this moment in time and everything else is just viewed at a distance.

Living in a totally different environment, where every experience is something new and exciting and where the change of seasons is almost non-existent compared to what I knew before. But, I have learned to notice little things that remind me these changes are still taking place. The tilt of the autumn sunset that casts a golden color across the shorter evening sky is different from pink, long shadow summer afternoons. The smell of the salty air on sultry summer mornings compared to a cool ocean breeze during a quick afternoon shower or the slant of the shadows across my back yard as the sun rises over the front of the house everyday and the guarantee of that sun is at least 99% of the time. I have also noticed the texture of my hair and skin is much better here and that sunshine is truly medicine for the soul. I also notice how quiet my world is............but, at a distance

"Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead" ...(Phil 3:13)

Clinging, with slippery fingers, to the familiar and comfortable, while reaching forward to God's new plan has made for an adventurous, busy couple of years.  The now beaten path back "home" has racked up hundreds of miles and hours on the road, but has gifted my heart with lots of cherished family time. Vacation visits from family and friends have been fun and given us a chance to explore amazing places like the Florida Keys, the old city of St. Augustine, Mount Dora and the many wonderful things we enjoy in our very own neighborhood. But when the car is parked in the driveway, the suitcases are unpacked, the guestroom is empty again, I notice how quiet my world is.............but at a distance

"You will be in Babylon for seventy years, then I will come and do all the things I have promised and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope." .... (Jeremiah 29: 10-11)

After visiting several churches, hoping to find one close by, we realized God had other plans. Nothing felt like home until we walked into a mission centered church almost 20 miles south. There we have made our spiritual home and discovered a wonderful family of friends in Christ. The hunger and eagerness for Sunday mornings is an experience that confirms the leading of the Father and assurance of His plans.
Cherished friends and precious memories with our former church family, 800 miles away, are still very much a part of our lives and phone conversations or spending time with them whenever possible is so special. But when those special moments are over and the miles between us grow wider, I notice how quiet my world is............but at a distance

"What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:3)

Leaving the work world, I left behind treasured friends and co-workers who impacted my life on a daily basis. This time of the year catches me between remembering the excitement of a new year and reliving the stress of what follows after the newness wears thin and the reality of the challenge that each day brought. I cherish those relationships and friendships with sweet memories and connections through social media, cheering their accomplishments and sharing empathy in their struggles. That season has passed for me and as the hubbub of a new year opens for them, I notice how quiet my world is........but at a distance

"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon, it's December before it's June"
(Dr Seuss)

Time.......a sermon at our former church in January 2015 challenged us to consider how we prioritized our time and talents today to be more like Jesus. He emphasized not living with regret or fear as.... "regret is a response to our past todays and fear is a response to our future todays. 

In Ecclesiastes 3- Solomon tells us there is a season for everything under the sun". Solomon's point in this section is that God has a plan for all people. Although we face many problems that contradict God's plan, these should not be barriers to believing in Him, but rather opportunities to discovering what his plan for us is.

The first sermon I heard after arriving in the sunshine state was titled " I am Sent". Leaving all I had ever known; my precious family and treasured friends, entering through a door God opened, I have no regrets or fears. He has blessed me with a safe and beautiful haven to rest and get acquainted with my surroundings, a church family to support and love me, new friends to share in my life and has whispered to me "wait" and I notice how quiet my world is ............but at a distance......

Lamentations 3: 24-26 calls us to hope in and wait for the Lord for often God uses times of waiting to refresh, renew and teach us.

Where the Journey Leads Revisted

The voice of God; what does it sound like?
The rumble of low thunder as a storm rolls in? The roar of a mighty lion claiming his territory? Maybe more like the sound of the ocean waves as they rush to the seashore? Perhaps, even like the faint echo from a mountain top as it bounces across a canyon, the soft coo of a morning dove or just as silent as the flutter of a butterfly's wings?

However He chooses to communicate with us, He does speak, just as surely as he spoke to the prophets in the old testament and to his disciples as he walked in flesh in the new testament. Priscilla Shirer says in her book, Discerning the voice of God,  "one of the most common reasons we don't hear His voice is we simply are not listening".


Retirement was something I always thought of as a long way off in the future, a reward for the sacrifice of trading my time for dollars. The world I had surrounded myself with for so long began to fall away......like the peeling away of the layers of an onion or maybe it was more like the layers of a scab, healing a wound left by years of being tossed back and forth in the sea of the work world. What I didn't expect was that retirement would cause such a loss of identity that would take a while to find again. And as each layer fell away, the new world around me began to look differently than what I had imagined it would be.


 From my blog "Life from the Heart" from October 2014 is a glimpse of the struggle to adjust to retirement........

The giddy feelings of freedom were refreshing during those first few months, but the giddiness, it seems, is wearing off. Frankly, the increasing feelings of freedom are somewhat overshadowed by the feeling of being completely trapped; trapped somewhere between what was and what is to come.

Not long ago Mondays were to be dreaded and faced with blinding determination to get past the start of the work week. Tuesdays were a little better, like the second sip of something bitter....it went down a little easier.  Wednesdays were the half-way mark of the fast paced race to make it to the finish line. Thursdays were the big push to get it all done so Fridays could be glided through with ease into the freedom of the long awaited weekend that would, no doubt go faster than the speed of light right back into someone else’s timeline. 

Days now come and go without the speed and stress of a few short months ago and are often undefined by any particular activities. Finding joy in this new found freedom is fleeting and finding a level of discipline to this new pace seems just a bit out of reach.  In a season of discontent, she finds herself in the spin cycle of change, searching for something to hold on to…. a passion……a purpose.
*(some content taken from "and I shall have peace there by Margaret Roach)

When it’s time for a change, you can feel it in your bones, and there’s nothing like that feeling – the feeling of chasing something new. Excited, anxious, happy…maybe even a little scared…but those feelings drive us towards the starting line of something fresh. There comes a time when we want something more, and there comes a time when we need something more. It can build up slowly, or catch you by surprise. Either way, you know it’s time to skip to the next scene, press play, and let the magic of the unknown excite you. (Author unknown)

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At the end of that first year, when the rush of life stopped rushing, when the noise of the busy world became quiet, when the mornings called me to sit before His majestic handiwork and listen, I heard the voice of God say.........

"restore your soul"

Since that day, 'His plans for me"(Jer 29:11) have changed my view from the quiet serenity of a little farm pond to the crashing waves of the Atlantic ocean. He has taught me that restoring my once stressed and work weary soul, can only be done by letting the layers covering the scabs of the past to drop away. He has whispered "Be Still" (Psalm 46:10) for which the original Hebrew root means "Let Go" as his plans for me unfold in His time.

I sat quietly this morning, drinking in the beauty of the view of my tropical world from the screened porch as well as my morning coffee and reading a devotional from Holley Gerth's "Do You Know You are Already Amazing".
The title, "You Don't Need to Do It All" was taken from the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10: 38-42. The attitudes of the sisters were totally different: Martha felt the need to do it all, while Mary felt she needed to give Jesus her all.
So many times we believe we have to do it all, give it our all and we are left worn out by the world. It's at that weakened time, the enemy of our souls sees us distracted and moves in to steal our peace, leaving us worried, upset and stressed out as we often experienced in the workplace. Even though I have found retirement to be a reward and a reprieve, a chance to restore my soul, the same reward can be found on a quiet Saturday morning looking out at the wonders God has created, whether the view is a mountain top, an ocean shore or simply the birds outside our window....a few minutes alone with our maker can set things right with our world.

As Holley Gerth points out, this story isn't really about the attitudes of the two sisters, it's the attitudes behind our choices. Both Martha and Mary loved and served Jesus, but on this day, only Mary wanted to enjoy Him. It's up to us to make a different, better choice. Scripture says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13)