Dear Faith Family,

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

I don’t understand. 

Let me back up.  Yesterday was a good day.  A long day, but a good day.  Last night I was tired.  As Chuck Swindoll would say, “a good tired”.  Finally at home, I removed wallet, keys, watch and ring at my desk.  Next to the desk is a heat and ac vent.  That’s an important fact.

When the ring came off my finger it refused to stop in my other hand.  That’s when gravity began to take its toll.  On it’s path toward the floor I heard it say, “He’s had a good day.  He’s tired.  Let’s head for the vent and hope for an opening."

The vent cover is wooden.  (Just wanted you to be aware of the particular sound that a ring would make as it collided with wood.)  Well, I didn’t hear that sound.  What I did hear was more of a tinny, clanging sound.  Kind of like (hypothetically speaking of course) the sound a ring would make as it collided with the duct opening below the wooden vent cover.

The last sound I heard sounded something like, “I’m innnnnnnn!”  Oh, and maybe a faint laughter!

After two failed attempts at reaching down into the vent, two shop vac hoses down the vent, and two trips under the house (I was concerned that the neighbors might think there was a burglar with a flashlight crawling under my house after 11:00 at night!) where I could actually move the vent and hear / feel the ring dancing in the vent pipe, I went to bed.

I don’t understand.

Do you understand?  Do you understand why “stuff” happens?  Stuff like not good doctor reports?  Stuff like why other people act the way that they do when they hurt you?  Stuff like when you don’t get the job?  Stuff like when “accidents” happen?  Stuff like when ___________ (you fill in the blank)?

Here’s the thing, if we can make sense of what is happening in, to, through, and around us, we tend to rest a bit more easily.  If I can just understand the why, then I can better live with the “stuff”, right?

But that isn’t what Paul wrote in Philippians 4.  God’s peace surpasses all understanding.  So, peace isn’t the result of being able to understand or to figure it out?  Anybody else “drop your wedding ring in the ac vent” today?  Anybody else at a loss for peace?  Anybody still trying to figure it out, to understand?  Although God sometimes grants the gift of understanding, true peace is not the product of our understanding.

Good news.  The avenue to peace is paved in Philippians 4:6.  Prayer is the tool that God has given us to surpass even our understanding with His peace.  Prayer allows us to focus on our Lord (Philippians 4:4) and to rejoice in Him in the midst of what we don’t understand.  Who He is trumps our lack of understanding!  He, alone, is the source of our peace.

I still don’t understand.  But He does!
Pastor Karl