Peace

    Two of my girls approached me at different times with heavy hearts today. One battling discouraging thoughts; the other burdened for a friend.

    And I get it. All of it.
    We are in the middle of some very bizarre times. There are so many tornadoes of instabilities, hovering over us like threats that are impossible to ignore. "Regular" life is challenging all on it's own, never mind additional challenges. It's a tangled web of intricate complications that lead down trails of doubt, disappointment, and ultimately end at the same general place: fear.
   So easy to suffocate in it all. The solution is so seemingly simple to speak, yet often so very difficult to do.

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you."

Isaiah 26:3

    Perfect peace. Oh, how we crave it. In every aspect of our lives. Our parched spirits, souls and bodies thirst after it. And we often find it in places that refuse to offer a permanent solution. People that we put so much hope in leave us feeling disappointed or wounded. Circumstances are ever-changing. Life refuses to remain constant, this one thing I've learned.
But the solution, the antidote could not be more simplistic. "Whose mind is stayed on you."
It's all about focus.
In photography, the lens of a camera contains an aperture. It tells the machine body how much of a particular subject I would like in focus, and how much I would like blurred in either the foreground or background. It's amazing how it works, really. I can focus in on a small bird and set my aperture so that all you see is the bird; all else in the photo falls away in a flurry of colors and hard to distinguish shapes. Or I can set my aperture so that the photo consists of the bird as well as the scenery around it. It all depends on what I want the end result to look like. When I focus on just the bird, the eye is intricately studying the bird and the bird alone, but when I permit the scenery around the bird, the eye is drawn to several distracting things happening in one picture, and the bird becomes less obvious.
I think peace works similarly. When we're able to fix our focus on God and God alone, all else in the world falls away. Our circumstances, our difficulties and struggles all still remain - but their presence doesn't dominate control over our lives. It has no power over God's presence. But when my mind is focused on the things of this world, when my thoughts continually dwell on the things that I cannot fix or control anyhow, my peace is shaken. Within my own life, I've seen this pattern and battle regularly - this ping-pong struggle over peace within my spirit. I can always gauge where my focus is at by the presence of fear or frustration in my life.
The last aspect of that verse cannot be left out: "...because he trusts in you." Perhaps this is the biggest piece of the puzzle.
Do we trust in Him?
I mean, really trust in Him?
Not when the skies are blue and the wind is calm. But during those seasons when the storm is raging and fear threatens to overtake us. When our emotions are thoughts run wild and untamed. 
We've all been there. And will continue to revisit.
But I can't help but wonder.
The words, "I believe in God" can be so easily spoken.
"I trust God" is an entirely different thing. Trust often requires time and consistency. I wouldn't expect my children to have the same kind of trust that has taken me over forty years to learn (and still learning). Trust doesn't come easily to me. People have disappointed and hurt me as long as I can remember. But - and this is incredibly difficult to explain, God has NEVER. There have been times where I've completely melted before Him, hurt and confused as to why He allowed or chose a circumstance to happen. My trust has been tested, more than once. But in the end I always come back to a firmer reliance on Him, and on His perfect plan for all things. And when I really get to the core of my hurt and misunderstanding, I always come to the same conclusion: Because I didn't get what I (thought) I wanted. Or "deserved".
Which leads me to the question that requires an answer from us all: Am I serving God, or am I expecting Him to serve me? Do I want what I want, or do I want what He wants for my life? Ultimately: Do I trust in my (limited) knowledge and (limited) understanding, or in His complete and perfect perspective?
I know it sounds ridiculous to ask, but really...it's truthful of how we often live. 
When our lives twist and turn in ways we didn't expect and don't look like we thought it should...is He still not the God who sees, knows and cares? Is HIS will not better than my own?
I've had to remind myself of these truths several times over the past few years. Life has thrown us some curve balls, and the heartache has been very real. But I KNOW His heart's intent. I TRUST that His plan is always, always better than my own. He's shown me time and time and time again.
I can't chose faith over fear for my kids. I can lead them, but I cannot force them.
And I can't solve their problems for them, nor for their friends. But I can point the to the one who can. The only thing within my control is setting my sights to the proper focal point, bringing the Creator of my soul into greater clarity - the only one who knows me inside and out....and loves me still.

And then I can rest - in perfect peace.
He's got this.