The topic at church this morning was peace, meaning inner peace. The
pastor in his sermon was saying that peace is not people avoiding
unpleasant situations. That reminded me of a sermon that Martin Luther
King, Jr. gave, which is in his book, Strength to Love: that
it's easy for people to have peace when they have lots of money in their
pocket, but that God's peace gets people through tough situations.
When King received a death threat, for example, he prayed to God, and he
felt a sense of peace.
I'm not sure what to say about all of this. I actually am
the type of person who likes to avoid unpleasant situations. I don't
like crisis. I can identify with what one of the characters in Stephen
King's Lisey's Story asked his wife: Are things the same? And,
to be honest, at least at this time in my life, I don't feel compelled
to prove to people that I have inner peace----that I feel a-OK in
horrible situations. When people have remarked to me that I look calm
in a crisis, I don't use that as an opportunity to witness. Sometimes,
I'm calm in a crisis because I can't do anything to solve it, and so all
I can do it wait and see what happens. I do admit, though,
that prayer gets me through----at least it puts my mind at some rest
while I am waiting. But prayer hasn't made me perfect, not by a long
shot. I'm still fearful of unpleasant situations.