✨A Mountain of Peace✨

I have faced an unusual number of challenges in my life—many more than most, and fewer than some. From an intensely dysfunctional childhood, to intense opportunities, through all sorts of messes of my own making and at the hands of others, I have endured a lot. I’m not complaining, since I now consider my garden-variety trials and traumas my superpower. Just as God promises, when we navigate them grounded in Him, they produce extraordinary endurance, perseverance, strength, wisdom, character, compassion, and many other fine virtues. As one famous lady preacher says, adversity can either make you bitter or better.

Jesus is the secret ingredient. As a deeply personal, accessible God, He understands me and works with me on an intimate basis. He is truly a Wonderful Counselor-Carpenter.

I confess, getting here has not been a pretty process. I’ve tried to manage my own life—unsuccessfully. I’ve taken detours by defying God’s clear direction. I’ve been fueled by fear and made panic-driven decisions that didn’t turn out so well. Eventually, I became desperate enough to surrender and seek another way.

This way involves surrender, cleaning house, and leaning in.

It’s not one-and-done. It’s ongoing.

In prayer this morning, I was praising God for the extraordinary peace I’ve felt in recent months. I’ve never experienced such peace in my life—and that’s saying something, because I’m 58. I’ve had partners and friends and done without. I’ve had money and done without. I’ve had worldly success and failure. I’ve had many fixtures for peace, but never the lasting peace itself.

Historically, the greatest peace I’ve known—though only for short spells—came at my lowest points, when I was stripped of everything but God, and could rely on nothing and no one else but Him. Yet once the crisis passed, I would swing back into action, and there would go my peace.

This morning I struggled to find words to describe it. Deep? Steady? Free? Soaring? It isn’t just peace—it’s something more.

An image appeared in my mind: a mountain of peace. It didn’t seem like an intuitive image, so I asked God about it. He led me to Isaiah 2.

Wow. What a stunning notion—and what a powerful verse for these globally trying times. No sooner had I settled on the image than a word dropped into my spirit:

Shalom—the Hebrew word for peace. (Some of you probably figured that out from the get-go.)

In its broader sense, shalom refers to a state of complete harmony, wholeness, and well-being—something truly transcendent, unattached to externals.Yes, that’s it.

I pray that all of us may attain and abide in that peace.

Are there instructions for securing it? Yes. Let yourself be stripped down to the studs without resistance. Seek Him relentlessly—not in striving, but in surrender. Allow God to remove anything that stands between you and Him, beginning with the self-will that so easily ensnares us and steals our peace. (Alert: Self comes in many pretty disguises.)

Shalom. 💖

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