A lesson in peace

     It had been a restless night's sleep.  I made myself get up and start spending some quiet time with the Lord and at 6:45 our exchange student came and got me.  Telling me she had been up all night with a stomach ache, she asked me for some medicine for her stomach.  I grabbed her some medicine from my small at-home pharmacy and returned to my Bible and prayer.  Not 10 minutes later, I heard her vomiting violently in the bathroom.  I went to see if I could help her in any way and noticed the vomit - all over the toilet, floor and splattered up against the walls and floor of the shower - she hadn't quite made it in time.  As I surveyed the mess, knowing that my day was already off to a late start, all I really wanted was to finish my "time with the Lord" before getting dressed, fixing breakfast and starting my day.  However, I sent her to her room and let her know I would clean up the mess.

     As I began cleaning up, the Lord began to speak to me in ways that He may not have been able to when I was so busy with my quiet time - spending time talking to Him.  He showed me how easy it is to compartmentalize our day and our understanding of life in Him.  It's easy to think of Bible time as my "time in the presence of the Lord," and then we get up and move on from that presence to the rest of the day.  The Lord gently reminded me that cleaning up vomit while communing with Him, doing it as a service to Him was just as much or even more valuable to Him than all the quiet time I could give.  The whole point of Christianity is the Christ has come to reveal Himself in and with and through us at every moment of our day, not just relegate time in His Presence to special segments of our day/week.  Then, as we begin to really grab hold of and assimilate this truth, all of life becomes about living in His presence and letting Him dictate our time.  Cleaning up vomit wasn't on the top of my list, but it was His gift to me that day, the way He wanted me to spend my time in that moment.  So much of my peace disturbance revolves around time.  If my day is a rush and I experience one delay after another, kids aren't concentrating in school and it takes twice as long as it should or more, others place demands on my time, my Spirit/soul get so stirred up and anxious.  His challenge to me is this: Will I really trust Him with all my time and see ALL that I do as it truly is - time in his presence - and walk in joyful peace as I serve Him in all the little and big tasks He sends, along with the curve balls that knock my day completely off the course I had intended for it.
 
     God made a covenant of peace with Phineas when his zeal for the things of GOD, caused him to act according to God's justice, as he saw all of life as an act of worship to GOD.  We have also been given a covenant of peace with God through the cross and can walk in that as we make all of life and act of sacrifice and worship. Num.25:12
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed

1
Alas, and did my Savior bleed?
  And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
  For such a worm as I?
  At the cross, at the cross where
  I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
  And now I am happy all the day!
2
Was it for sins that I had done
  He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
  And love beyond degree!
3
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
  And shut His glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
  For man, His creature’s sin.
4
Thus might I hide my blushing face
  While His dear cross appears.
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
  And melt mine eyes to tears.
5
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
  The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
  ’Tis all that I can do.

Beautiful rendition, alternative tune
Story behind the hymn