Perfect Peace

This has been our summer of stuff.

I was trying to figure out the other day exactly when it all started.  It seemed the further I thought back, the further I went.  

We were pretty boring people not that long ago.  Then stuff started happening and then more stuff happened (and some things really got the best of me).

We are a family where almost no one has ever had surgery and yet in the last eight months there have been three.  We do almost anything to stay out of the emergency room and yet we've made several trips recently. 

There was a cyst on my ovary, and a long struggle with shingles.  One of our sons had knee surgery and months of physical therapy.  There was hernia surgery and leg surgery and a scary run-in with lightning.   

If you've only known me for a year or so, we seem to be that family who always has a problem of some sort.  If you've known me a bit longer you have a different perspective.  Whatever the case, we've been through a lot in the last year.  

Not all of our stuff has been medical.  There have also been relational/emotional issues.  There have been situations that have broken our hearts and people who have let us down.  

I call it our season of stuff simply because there's nothing great to call it..."that summer when Nic got hit with lightning and Dad had two surgeries, and Mom cried a lot".  Yeah, that one.  

There are some verses I have come to love.  I've found myself clinging to them let's just say.  

Isaiah 26:3-4

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.  Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.  

I want to be kept in perfect peace, don't you?  This verse says He (the Lord God) will give that to us.  We trust Him, He gives us peace.  Oh how I've prayed that God would cause my heart and mind to stay focused on Him.  

Perfect peace when a friend crushes us?
When we're scared to death?
Perfect peace in the storm?  When money runs out?  When depression sneaks in?
Perfect peace in cancer?  Infertility?

Perfect peace.

He will keep us in perfect peace.

I love the sound of that.  I want that.  

There will always be stuff.  This isn't just the summer of stuff.  Let's face it, as long as we are here on this earth we will have trouble.  We are not perfect, nor are our family members, friends, or circumstances, but we can have perfect peace.  

Ahhh...  Thank you, Lord!