Living Your Story in Peace

 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious 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. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9 ESV).

 

There is often an incredible contrast in living with frantic anxiety and deep, lasting peace. Followers of Jesus are given enough of their story at a time to live at peace. I’ve seen and experienced this throughout my life. Some of our stories actually start pretty badly, with broken families, bodies, and emotions that experience deep pain—and often terrible kinds of abuse. Even so, we can still know that our Storyteller has promised to work everything out for good by the end of the story. And that means that if everything’s not yet all right, then we’re not yet at the end.

 

As we live in the part of the story between our brokenness today and God’s “happily ever after” someday, we can know that every chapter of our story will somehow serve the purpose that God wrote into our lives from the very beginning. This is our assurance from the promises of God. This is the first step toward achieving a peaceful life.

 

In fact, when we live with a story that is punctuated with trial and difficulty, we should practice an intentionality and mindfulness rooted in the truth that this is merely God’s perfect way of delivering the ultimate good in our life. Instead of feeling the cold desperation of scrambling for everything, we can relax. Instead of trying nervously to achieve some success right now, we can allow God’s Holy Spirit to make us new over time. Because we know that the end of our story will be a good one, we can let God create his fruit in us: his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23). And through it all, God’s peace surrounds us like a shield.

 

Remember we are in a cross-country marathon, not a sprint!