Peace Is Like A Flowing River
Biblical Studies
More Alive Than Ever
Signs In The Miracles Of John's Gospel
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
In his will is our peace.
-- Dante
As a boy living in Fargo, North Dakota, I would spend summers out on the prairie land in the central part of the state, and I knew about storms. There was a terrible drought through those years and a great depression gripped the land and people. Those were the years of destructive dust storms. Great clouds of prairie soil would gather in the skies covering the sun. An eerie greenish color would fill the air and it would turn dark at noon. The dust would fall everywhere and drift against the curbs and in the ditches out in the open country. The mounds of dust were like gray and blackened snow. High winds would make it difficult to walk outside with your eyes open.
It seemed that the wind was always blowing out on the prairies during the hot summers. In the little town where I lived with my great grandmother, the standard joke was, "Yes, one day the wind did stop blowing during the noon hour and everyone fell down!" Thunderheads would form in the late afternoon and rise miles high in the sky. Their tips would twist and turn, rising and falling in awesome fashion. At times they would darken as the lightning flashed and thunder rolled. As darkness gathered, heat lightning would roll along the fields. High winds and driving rain and sometimes golf ball size hail would do great damage. In our yard was a grove of cottonwoods that would sigh and groan in the midst of great storms. Huge branches would break and rush down the gravel roads past our home, and in a few minutes they would come back from the opposite direction. These mighty storms were always followed by a great calm. Spectacular rainbows would fill the sky and once again a song of peace would fill the land.
The fifth miracle and sign takes place in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. This body of water is shaped like a harp and is thirteen miles long, seven miles wide, 130-157 feet deep, and 32 miles in circumference. The lake itself is located 686 feet below sea level, producing a semi-tropical climate soothed by cool breezes off the lake. The water is sparkling clear and pure, and generally calm.
During the days of Jesus, Galilee was the center of roads going in all directions. The great fertility of the valley and its beauty along with the hot springs of Tiberias drew a considerable population. It is hard to believe when you travel there today that there were nine bustling cities located around the lake.
George Adam Smith, in 1894, described the lake in this fashion: "Sweet water full of fish, a surface of sparkling blue. The Lake of Galilee is at once food, drink, and air, a rest to the eye, coolness in the heat, an escape from the crowd. Where there are now no trees, there were great woods, where there are marshes, there were noble gardens, where there is but one boat, there were fleets of sail."1
When my daughter Kris and I visited Israel and Jordan in 1988, we spent some time in the city of Tiberias on the western shore of this beautiful Lake of Galilee. You could walk along the paved road situated just off the lake and see many a fishing boat loaded with fish and nets. Restaurants served generous portions of "Peter fish," and the entertainment spots featured many a musical group and singing and dancing people of all ages. Soldiers casually walked through the streets finding relaxation and recreation from the horrors of violence in the Jerusalem area. One morning, an excursion boat took us to the other side of the lake to the site of what was the great city of Capernaum in the days of Jesus. As I looked at the high rugged hills in the distance I thought of the great winds and storms that can still pummel this place of calmness and peace. We were told that to this day the winds are siphoned down through the valleys and gullies around the lake and produce fierce storms with shrieking winds and high waves.
During the days of Jesus it was in the midst of one of these storms that we find the setting for the fifth sign in which there was experienced the great gift of peace. It is this peace that is meant to flow like a river through our inward being even in the midst of the storms of life. Such a gift of peace enables us to be more alive than ever.
There is an old story about an artist who was commissioned to paint a picture that would represent peace. When the painting was completed, those who looked at it were surprised because it was not a picture of pasture land with grazing cattle or sheep with sunshine filtering through wooded hillsides ablaze with color. Nor was it a picture of a shimmering lake surrounded with beautiful pines and mountain peaks spotted with snow. Rather it was a picture of a storm. In the midst of thunder, lightning, and pelting rain there was a waterfall cascading over some rugged cliffs. Growing out from one of the crevices in the cliffs was a tree with its limbs stretching out over the waterfall and ragged rocks below. Precariously placed in one of the branches was a nest with a small bird with its head uplifted and singing a song. The artist's concept of peace was a song being sung in the midst of roaring danger.
Look into our story containing the fifth sign. Following the feeding of the great crowd with a little boy's lunch of five barley loaves and two fish, the people considered Jesus some kind of a great prophet. The people rushed toward him clamoring to make him their king. The account states that they were "about to come and take him by force ..." (John 6:15). Jesus withdrew from them and walked up into the high hills overlooking the lake to meditate and pray. As the darkness descended, there was a full moon since it was the time of the great Passover festival. In the moonlight he could look down upon the lake and see his disciples in a boat struggling against the high waves, because a strong wind was blowing and a storm brewing. Here the author, as an old fisherman, can feel the sights and sounds of the past. Through the eyes of his mind and his writing, you and I can feel the darkness of the night and see the gray silver of the moonlight. We, too, can feel the rough oars with our hands, and hear the flapping sails, the shrieking wind, and the surging water.2
When the disciples had rowed about three or four miles, they noticed through the wind and waves and misty air a ghostly figure coming toward them walking on the water. To their superstitious minds the figure seemed to be some kind of apparition or spirit and they were terrified. Then they heard the cry of Jesus saying to them, "It is I, do not be afraid." But not all of the disciples were completely reassured. Big, bold, brash Peter cried out, "If it is you command me to come to you on the water." Jesus told him to come, so Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. Soon his heart was gripped with fear and doubt because of the wind and waves and he began to sink into the stormy sea (Matthew 14:22-33).3
As a young boy, we went to a church that had a painting above the altar of Peter floundering in the stormy sea, reaching out, and grabbing Jesus. But the historical account tells us that it was the other way around. Jesus reached out and grabbed Peter and saved him. It was Jesus who gave reassurance and peace to Peter and the other disciples. They were so reassured by the voice and presence of Jesus that though the storm continued they were able to land the boat. In the midst of the storm they experienced the great gift of peace that enabled them to act. This peace, indeed, was like a river flowing through them. Such a historical account reminds us of the words of the psalmist: "Then they were glad because they had quiet and the Lord brought them to their desired haven" (Psalm 107:30).
This Jesus, as he walked on earth, possessed a remarkable quality of life that has endowed him with universal appeal. The world has not forgotten him. His name is on someone's lips every second of time. In fact, time is dated from his birth. A billion plus human beings today claim to be his followers, and most of them are convinced that he is the one who can give them abundant life now and in the world to come. Through him in the midst of the storms of our life comes a particular quality that can enable us to be more alive than ever. Yes, we call this gift peace; that is a deep inner sense of calmness, poise, reassurance, and courage that enables us to act and to come alive as never before.4
On the night before Jesus died he met with his disciples in that upper room in Jerusalem. The disciples were filled with fear. The very night air around them was filled with death and danger. Together at that supper of the Passover meal Jesus taught them many things and then he said to them, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14:27).
Today there remains all around us the enemies of peace. There are forces that disrupt the flow of peace through our lives. In this busy, pressurized age there are worries, anxieties, and fears that keep us from inward peace even into old age. There are those days of troubles and heartaches that make a sense of peace very difficult.
A commercial airline pilot on one occasion made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy that required that the pilot stand at the door while the passengers exited. He was to give each of them a smile and say, "Thanks for flying with us today." In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed.
Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached the pilot and asked, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?"
"Why no ma'am, what is it?" said the pilot bravely.
"Did we land," she asked, "or were we shot down?"
There are days in which we feel shot down. There are days in which worries, anxieties, and fears produce stress in our lives that weakens the abundant life force we were meant to have. Stress, for example, is your husband losing his job when you have two children to support. That's what Amy Mahoney-Casp, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, had been dealing with for several months. She discovered that she and her husband Jamie had different ways of coping. Amy states that when "Jamie lost his job I retreated to what I call my cave. I resorted to handling the true basics with minimal effort elsewhere -- no phone and no e-mail. This helped clear my plate and conserve energy in an attempt to strategize the situation."
Jamie handles stress differently. Rather than retreat, he tackles a problem straight on. "Experience has taught me that if you give it your best shot, it'll turn out all right in the end. The longer you let something sit there, the bigger it grows. It won't go away, so you might as well deal with it head on."5
Author Georgia Witkin states that the lives of men and women may be equally stressful, but many of the stresses, symptoms, and coping mechanisms are different. The fact remains that worries and fears produced by stressful events destroy a sense of inner peace and are harmful and damaging to our physical well-being. Stress can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, ulcers, alcoholism, depression, melancholy, and sexual dysfunction.6 It is interesting to me that the ten most stressful events in a "Social Readjustment Rating Scale" are as follows:
��Death of a spouse or child,
��Divorce,
��Losing a job,
��Pregnancy problems,
��Revision of present habits,
��Son or daughter leaving home,
��Sexual difficulties,
��Marriage,
��Retirement, and
��Christmas and major holidays.7
Many experts in the field of counseling offer us what can be termed a first aid for short-term stress that consists of the following methods.
1.
Exercise: Make sure it is regular and convenient. Walking is the most common aerobic exercise for men and women of all ages.
2.
Soothing environments: Take a warm bath, a hot shower, or a five-minute nap in the sunshine. Things like browsing in a bookstore can create a soothing environment.
3.
Reorganize: Clean out your closet, rearrange your tool chest, or set up a new tax record sheet. Any act of organization will increase your sense of control. As a sense of control increases, stress decreases.
4.
Play: Don't just send your children out to play -- join them. Play games such as backgammon for distraction, cards for socialization, and word games for self-improvement.
5.
Meditation and deep relaxation: Detaching yourself from worries and preoccupations for at least ten minutes to thirty minutes can do wonders. All you need is a chair and a darkened room. Focus on an object or spot on a wall and count backward from 100, concentrating on your breathing.8
When it comes to stress and a lack of inner peace, we need something more than just first aid. Certainly it is important to add to our meditation moments the power of prayer. I know of a man who, when he is all stressed out, approaches God with his hands stretched out and facing upward. "Here," he says, "are all my problems and worries and anxieties and fears." Then he turns his hands downward as if he were casting all his cares away. Then he turns his hands upward and says, "Now pour into me your great gift of peace."
In the teachings of Jesus there is offered to us a great antidote for worry and anxiety and fear. The crowds of people who surrounded him were full of anxieties and fears. They were plagued with worry and stress. Certainly they were worried about food and clothing and for good reason. They were a people of the land who were only a storm or a drought away from complete poverty and starvation. Jesus tells them to look around and consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field who didn't plant or harvest. Even so, Jesus said that if one little bird falls to the ground, God our Father knows it, and the flowers of the field were arrayed more beautifully than King Solomon of old. Then Jesus tells us that we are of more value than many birds and that even the hairs of our head are numbered because God knows us inside out. He reminds us that God is the one who created us and loves us unconditionally. In fact, he creates us to be absolutely unique. No two of us are the same! When God created you and me he threw out the mold. Long ago God said something to the prophet Jeremiah that he says to you and me, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you ..." (Jeremiah 1:5).
If you and I were an idea in the mind of God before we were formed in the womb then we are created for a plan and purpose. God puts dreams into our hearts that he wants us to grab a hold of and fulfill. Such knowledge adds purpose and meaning to our existence and can give us a sense of peace. We can know beyond all doubt that we are loved and cared for by the God who created us for his plans, and this knowledge can give us the realization that the real antidote for anxieties and fears lies in gratitude. Gratitude and thanksgiving are the opposite of self-centeredness and bitterness. Real thanksgiving comes out of our faith and results in oy, hope, and peace.
When the Apostle Paul was in a prison cell waiting to be executed, he wrote a letter to one of the congregations he had helped to establish in Philippi, Greece. In this letter, written in a drafty, cold prison full of the specter of death, he writes: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
Pastor Charles Allen tells of a meaningful Thanksgiving worship service in which he was really blessed. He looked out over the congregation and saw sitting near the front a couple who had lost their son in the war in Korea. Then in a few rows behind them he saw a certain woman who had desired all her life to be a wife and mother, but her parents became ill when she was young and she had devoted her life to taking care of them. Although oftentimes lonely, she never gave in to self-pity. In the back of the church he noticed a man who had been in and out of jail. He had grown up in the streets, poor and unloved. All these people were dealing with their own private heartaches and anxieties and fears. Each one of them was there in church that day singing thanks to God.9
The older I become, the more I realize that peace is not some kind of static and unemotional concept. It is a powerful moving force that is like a flowing river. This flowing peace within us produces the courage to act in decisive ways. The real secret of being more alive than ever is this inner sense of peace that gives us the energy to cope with a myriad of problems no matter how severe.
Maybe you know the story of Olympic speed skating champion, Dan Janson. Dan was the favorite in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Just before he was to race he was given the message that his sister Jane's long battle against leukemia had ended in death. "When I finally got on the ice for the 500-meter race," writes Dan in his autobiography, Full Circle, "I felt wobbly as if I hadn't been on skates in six months." He thought of Jane, "Jane is dead. Should I be here? How can my parents cheer for me while facing the burial of a child? Jane's dead." Unable to concentrate, Janson had a terrible Olympics. His performance was compounded by his guilt. "You jerk," he thought, "your sister just died." His lack of success at skating should not matter to him under such circumstances, he thought, but it did.
Things did not improve much for Dan in the 1992 Olympics. In spite of a history of winning some championships he was becoming an athlete who "chokes" when his biggest test of all comes. He retained the services of a sports psychologist. Yet no matter what he did or tried his performance at skating was full of slips and falls.
How well I remember the 1,000-meter race in the 1992 Olympics. I sat glued to the television and felt I was sitting on pins and needles. Janson had never won this event before and this was probably his last chance ever to win a gold medal. Approaching the starting line he touched a ring around his neck containing the birthstone of his eight-month daughter, Jane, named after his late sister. To our dismay, once more, in a major race, Dan slipped, but this time he did not falter as he had before and when he crossed the finish line first, the noise was deafening. Dan Janson finally won his gold medal in the Olympics, and the victory was won on the ice only after it was won in his own heart and mind. The inward storms of guilt and fears, anxieties, and worries were overcome by an inward sense of peace that could only have come through the God of peace. This peace flowed like a river through his being and gave him an inward strength and discipline and courage that enabled him to be more alive than ever.
Like the great storms that came across the prairies, there are storms that come into your life and mine. The winds of problems and cares are ever-shifting and moving in all directions. Our sense of peace can become precarious indeed. But the God who loves us in Jesus can say to us again, "Peace, be still." This Jesus comes to us in the midst of the storm and says, "It is I, do not be afraid." We can know again that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from his loving care. Inward peace is a precious gift that can enable us to be more alive than ever.
Reflection And Discussion
Thought Questions
1.
What kind of danger threatened the disciples of Jesus?
2.
Why are the disciples filled with terror?
3.
How was the terror overcome?
4.
In what different ways does Jesus come to us today?
Agree Or Disagree
�
Fear keeps us from doing what we should do.
�
God does not always protect us.
�
Everyone who prays escapes from danger and experiences peace.
Endnotes
1.�Sami Awwad, The Holy Land In Color (Jerusalem: Polphot Ltd.). (This book is revised and updated frequently.)
2.�William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1 (Louisville/ London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 2001), pp. 241-245.
3.�William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956, 1958), pp. 322-323.
4.�Sherwood E. Wirt, Jesus, Man of Joy (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publications, 1999), pp. 17-18, 61ff.
5.�Georgia Witkin, The Female Stress Survival Guide (New York: Newmarket Press, 2002).
6.�Georgia Witkin, The Male Stress Survival Guide (New York: Newmarket Press, 2003), Witkin books quoted in East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Arizona, February 27, 2003.
7.�The 10 most stressful events from Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Roche, "The Social Readjustment Rating Scale" -- Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
8.�David B. Wilhelm, M.D., RX For The Soul (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), pp. 24-30.
9.�Charles L. Allen, God's 7 Wonders For You (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1987), pp. 48-49.
Other Resources
Gerald Sloyan, Interpretation -- John (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988), pp. 66-67.
Denis Waitley, Ten Seeds Of Greatness (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1983), pp. 172-185.
Robert Kysar, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament -- John (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), pp. 93-96.
Bonnie St. John Deane, Succeeding Sane (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), p. 168.
In his will is our peace.
-- Dante
As a boy living in Fargo, North Dakota, I would spend summers out on the prairie land in the central part of the state, and I knew about storms. There was a terrible drought through those years and a great depression gripped the land and people. Those were the years of destructive dust storms. Great clouds of prairie soil would gather in the skies covering the sun. An eerie greenish color would fill the air and it would turn dark at noon. The dust would fall everywhere and drift against the curbs and in the ditches out in the open country. The mounds of dust were like gray and blackened snow. High winds would make it difficult to walk outside with your eyes open.
It seemed that the wind was always blowing out on the prairies during the hot summers. In the little town where I lived with my great grandmother, the standard joke was, "Yes, one day the wind did stop blowing during the noon hour and everyone fell down!" Thunderheads would form in the late afternoon and rise miles high in the sky. Their tips would twist and turn, rising and falling in awesome fashion. At times they would darken as the lightning flashed and thunder rolled. As darkness gathered, heat lightning would roll along the fields. High winds and driving rain and sometimes golf ball size hail would do great damage. In our yard was a grove of cottonwoods that would sigh and groan in the midst of great storms. Huge branches would break and rush down the gravel roads past our home, and in a few minutes they would come back from the opposite direction. These mighty storms were always followed by a great calm. Spectacular rainbows would fill the sky and once again a song of peace would fill the land.
The fifth miracle and sign takes place in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. This body of water is shaped like a harp and is thirteen miles long, seven miles wide, 130-157 feet deep, and 32 miles in circumference. The lake itself is located 686 feet below sea level, producing a semi-tropical climate soothed by cool breezes off the lake. The water is sparkling clear and pure, and generally calm.
During the days of Jesus, Galilee was the center of roads going in all directions. The great fertility of the valley and its beauty along with the hot springs of Tiberias drew a considerable population. It is hard to believe when you travel there today that there were nine bustling cities located around the lake.
George Adam Smith, in 1894, described the lake in this fashion: "Sweet water full of fish, a surface of sparkling blue. The Lake of Galilee is at once food, drink, and air, a rest to the eye, coolness in the heat, an escape from the crowd. Where there are now no trees, there were great woods, where there are marshes, there were noble gardens, where there is but one boat, there were fleets of sail."1
When my daughter Kris and I visited Israel and Jordan in 1988, we spent some time in the city of Tiberias on the western shore of this beautiful Lake of Galilee. You could walk along the paved road situated just off the lake and see many a fishing boat loaded with fish and nets. Restaurants served generous portions of "Peter fish," and the entertainment spots featured many a musical group and singing and dancing people of all ages. Soldiers casually walked through the streets finding relaxation and recreation from the horrors of violence in the Jerusalem area. One morning, an excursion boat took us to the other side of the lake to the site of what was the great city of Capernaum in the days of Jesus. As I looked at the high rugged hills in the distance I thought of the great winds and storms that can still pummel this place of calmness and peace. We were told that to this day the winds are siphoned down through the valleys and gullies around the lake and produce fierce storms with shrieking winds and high waves.
During the days of Jesus it was in the midst of one of these storms that we find the setting for the fifth sign in which there was experienced the great gift of peace. It is this peace that is meant to flow like a river through our inward being even in the midst of the storms of life. Such a gift of peace enables us to be more alive than ever.
There is an old story about an artist who was commissioned to paint a picture that would represent peace. When the painting was completed, those who looked at it were surprised because it was not a picture of pasture land with grazing cattle or sheep with sunshine filtering through wooded hillsides ablaze with color. Nor was it a picture of a shimmering lake surrounded with beautiful pines and mountain peaks spotted with snow. Rather it was a picture of a storm. In the midst of thunder, lightning, and pelting rain there was a waterfall cascading over some rugged cliffs. Growing out from one of the crevices in the cliffs was a tree with its limbs stretching out over the waterfall and ragged rocks below. Precariously placed in one of the branches was a nest with a small bird with its head uplifted and singing a song. The artist's concept of peace was a song being sung in the midst of roaring danger.
Look into our story containing the fifth sign. Following the feeding of the great crowd with a little boy's lunch of five barley loaves and two fish, the people considered Jesus some kind of a great prophet. The people rushed toward him clamoring to make him their king. The account states that they were "about to come and take him by force ..." (John 6:15). Jesus withdrew from them and walked up into the high hills overlooking the lake to meditate and pray. As the darkness descended, there was a full moon since it was the time of the great Passover festival. In the moonlight he could look down upon the lake and see his disciples in a boat struggling against the high waves, because a strong wind was blowing and a storm brewing. Here the author, as an old fisherman, can feel the sights and sounds of the past. Through the eyes of his mind and his writing, you and I can feel the darkness of the night and see the gray silver of the moonlight. We, too, can feel the rough oars with our hands, and hear the flapping sails, the shrieking wind, and the surging water.2
When the disciples had rowed about three or four miles, they noticed through the wind and waves and misty air a ghostly figure coming toward them walking on the water. To their superstitious minds the figure seemed to be some kind of apparition or spirit and they were terrified. Then they heard the cry of Jesus saying to them, "It is I, do not be afraid." But not all of the disciples were completely reassured. Big, bold, brash Peter cried out, "If it is you command me to come to you on the water." Jesus told him to come, so Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. Soon his heart was gripped with fear and doubt because of the wind and waves and he began to sink into the stormy sea (Matthew 14:22-33).3
As a young boy, we went to a church that had a painting above the altar of Peter floundering in the stormy sea, reaching out, and grabbing Jesus. But the historical account tells us that it was the other way around. Jesus reached out and grabbed Peter and saved him. It was Jesus who gave reassurance and peace to Peter and the other disciples. They were so reassured by the voice and presence of Jesus that though the storm continued they were able to land the boat. In the midst of the storm they experienced the great gift of peace that enabled them to act. This peace, indeed, was like a river flowing through them. Such a historical account reminds us of the words of the psalmist: "Then they were glad because they had quiet and the Lord brought them to their desired haven" (Psalm 107:30).
This Jesus, as he walked on earth, possessed a remarkable quality of life that has endowed him with universal appeal. The world has not forgotten him. His name is on someone's lips every second of time. In fact, time is dated from his birth. A billion plus human beings today claim to be his followers, and most of them are convinced that he is the one who can give them abundant life now and in the world to come. Through him in the midst of the storms of our life comes a particular quality that can enable us to be more alive than ever. Yes, we call this gift peace; that is a deep inner sense of calmness, poise, reassurance, and courage that enables us to act and to come alive as never before.4
On the night before Jesus died he met with his disciples in that upper room in Jerusalem. The disciples were filled with fear. The very night air around them was filled with death and danger. Together at that supper of the Passover meal Jesus taught them many things and then he said to them, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14:27).
Today there remains all around us the enemies of peace. There are forces that disrupt the flow of peace through our lives. In this busy, pressurized age there are worries, anxieties, and fears that keep us from inward peace even into old age. There are those days of troubles and heartaches that make a sense of peace very difficult.
A commercial airline pilot on one occasion made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy that required that the pilot stand at the door while the passengers exited. He was to give each of them a smile and say, "Thanks for flying with us today." In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed.
Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached the pilot and asked, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?"
"Why no ma'am, what is it?" said the pilot bravely.
"Did we land," she asked, "or were we shot down?"
There are days in which we feel shot down. There are days in which worries, anxieties, and fears produce stress in our lives that weakens the abundant life force we were meant to have. Stress, for example, is your husband losing his job when you have two children to support. That's what Amy Mahoney-Casp, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, had been dealing with for several months. She discovered that she and her husband Jamie had different ways of coping. Amy states that when "Jamie lost his job I retreated to what I call my cave. I resorted to handling the true basics with minimal effort elsewhere -- no phone and no e-mail. This helped clear my plate and conserve energy in an attempt to strategize the situation."
Jamie handles stress differently. Rather than retreat, he tackles a problem straight on. "Experience has taught me that if you give it your best shot, it'll turn out all right in the end. The longer you let something sit there, the bigger it grows. It won't go away, so you might as well deal with it head on."5
Author Georgia Witkin states that the lives of men and women may be equally stressful, but many of the stresses, symptoms, and coping mechanisms are different. The fact remains that worries and fears produced by stressful events destroy a sense of inner peace and are harmful and damaging to our physical well-being. Stress can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, ulcers, alcoholism, depression, melancholy, and sexual dysfunction.6 It is interesting to me that the ten most stressful events in a "Social Readjustment Rating Scale" are as follows:
��Death of a spouse or child,
��Divorce,
��Losing a job,
��Pregnancy problems,
��Revision of present habits,
��Son or daughter leaving home,
��Sexual difficulties,
��Marriage,
��Retirement, and
��Christmas and major holidays.7
Many experts in the field of counseling offer us what can be termed a first aid for short-term stress that consists of the following methods.
1.
Exercise: Make sure it is regular and convenient. Walking is the most common aerobic exercise for men and women of all ages.
2.
Soothing environments: Take a warm bath, a hot shower, or a five-minute nap in the sunshine. Things like browsing in a bookstore can create a soothing environment.
3.
Reorganize: Clean out your closet, rearrange your tool chest, or set up a new tax record sheet. Any act of organization will increase your sense of control. As a sense of control increases, stress decreases.
4.
Play: Don't just send your children out to play -- join them. Play games such as backgammon for distraction, cards for socialization, and word games for self-improvement.
5.
Meditation and deep relaxation: Detaching yourself from worries and preoccupations for at least ten minutes to thirty minutes can do wonders. All you need is a chair and a darkened room. Focus on an object or spot on a wall and count backward from 100, concentrating on your breathing.8
When it comes to stress and a lack of inner peace, we need something more than just first aid. Certainly it is important to add to our meditation moments the power of prayer. I know of a man who, when he is all stressed out, approaches God with his hands stretched out and facing upward. "Here," he says, "are all my problems and worries and anxieties and fears." Then he turns his hands downward as if he were casting all his cares away. Then he turns his hands upward and says, "Now pour into me your great gift of peace."
In the teachings of Jesus there is offered to us a great antidote for worry and anxiety and fear. The crowds of people who surrounded him were full of anxieties and fears. They were plagued with worry and stress. Certainly they were worried about food and clothing and for good reason. They were a people of the land who were only a storm or a drought away from complete poverty and starvation. Jesus tells them to look around and consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field who didn't plant or harvest. Even so, Jesus said that if one little bird falls to the ground, God our Father knows it, and the flowers of the field were arrayed more beautifully than King Solomon of old. Then Jesus tells us that we are of more value than many birds and that even the hairs of our head are numbered because God knows us inside out. He reminds us that God is the one who created us and loves us unconditionally. In fact, he creates us to be absolutely unique. No two of us are the same! When God created you and me he threw out the mold. Long ago God said something to the prophet Jeremiah that he says to you and me, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you ..." (Jeremiah 1:5).
If you and I were an idea in the mind of God before we were formed in the womb then we are created for a plan and purpose. God puts dreams into our hearts that he wants us to grab a hold of and fulfill. Such knowledge adds purpose and meaning to our existence and can give us a sense of peace. We can know beyond all doubt that we are loved and cared for by the God who created us for his plans, and this knowledge can give us the realization that the real antidote for anxieties and fears lies in gratitude. Gratitude and thanksgiving are the opposite of self-centeredness and bitterness. Real thanksgiving comes out of our faith and results in oy, hope, and peace.
When the Apostle Paul was in a prison cell waiting to be executed, he wrote a letter to one of the congregations he had helped to establish in Philippi, Greece. In this letter, written in a drafty, cold prison full of the specter of death, he writes: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
Pastor Charles Allen tells of a meaningful Thanksgiving worship service in which he was really blessed. He looked out over the congregation and saw sitting near the front a couple who had lost their son in the war in Korea. Then in a few rows behind them he saw a certain woman who had desired all her life to be a wife and mother, but her parents became ill when she was young and she had devoted her life to taking care of them. Although oftentimes lonely, she never gave in to self-pity. In the back of the church he noticed a man who had been in and out of jail. He had grown up in the streets, poor and unloved. All these people were dealing with their own private heartaches and anxieties and fears. Each one of them was there in church that day singing thanks to God.9
The older I become, the more I realize that peace is not some kind of static and unemotional concept. It is a powerful moving force that is like a flowing river. This flowing peace within us produces the courage to act in decisive ways. The real secret of being more alive than ever is this inner sense of peace that gives us the energy to cope with a myriad of problems no matter how severe.
Maybe you know the story of Olympic speed skating champion, Dan Janson. Dan was the favorite in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Just before he was to race he was given the message that his sister Jane's long battle against leukemia had ended in death. "When I finally got on the ice for the 500-meter race," writes Dan in his autobiography, Full Circle, "I felt wobbly as if I hadn't been on skates in six months." He thought of Jane, "Jane is dead. Should I be here? How can my parents cheer for me while facing the burial of a child? Jane's dead." Unable to concentrate, Janson had a terrible Olympics. His performance was compounded by his guilt. "You jerk," he thought, "your sister just died." His lack of success at skating should not matter to him under such circumstances, he thought, but it did.
Things did not improve much for Dan in the 1992 Olympics. In spite of a history of winning some championships he was becoming an athlete who "chokes" when his biggest test of all comes. He retained the services of a sports psychologist. Yet no matter what he did or tried his performance at skating was full of slips and falls.
How well I remember the 1,000-meter race in the 1992 Olympics. I sat glued to the television and felt I was sitting on pins and needles. Janson had never won this event before and this was probably his last chance ever to win a gold medal. Approaching the starting line he touched a ring around his neck containing the birthstone of his eight-month daughter, Jane, named after his late sister. To our dismay, once more, in a major race, Dan slipped, but this time he did not falter as he had before and when he crossed the finish line first, the noise was deafening. Dan Janson finally won his gold medal in the Olympics, and the victory was won on the ice only after it was won in his own heart and mind. The inward storms of guilt and fears, anxieties, and worries were overcome by an inward sense of peace that could only have come through the God of peace. This peace flowed like a river through his being and gave him an inward strength and discipline and courage that enabled him to be more alive than ever.
Like the great storms that came across the prairies, there are storms that come into your life and mine. The winds of problems and cares are ever-shifting and moving in all directions. Our sense of peace can become precarious indeed. But the God who loves us in Jesus can say to us again, "Peace, be still." This Jesus comes to us in the midst of the storm and says, "It is I, do not be afraid." We can know again that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from his loving care. Inward peace is a precious gift that can enable us to be more alive than ever.
Reflection And Discussion
Thought Questions
1.
What kind of danger threatened the disciples of Jesus?
2.
Why are the disciples filled with terror?
3.
How was the terror overcome?
4.
In what different ways does Jesus come to us today?
Agree Or Disagree
�
Fear keeps us from doing what we should do.
�
God does not always protect us.
�
Everyone who prays escapes from danger and experiences peace.
Endnotes
1.�Sami Awwad, The Holy Land In Color (Jerusalem: Polphot Ltd.). (This book is revised and updated frequently.)
2.�William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1 (Louisville/ London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 2001), pp. 241-245.
3.�William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956, 1958), pp. 322-323.
4.�Sherwood E. Wirt, Jesus, Man of Joy (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publications, 1999), pp. 17-18, 61ff.
5.�Georgia Witkin, The Female Stress Survival Guide (New York: Newmarket Press, 2002).
6.�Georgia Witkin, The Male Stress Survival Guide (New York: Newmarket Press, 2003), Witkin books quoted in East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Arizona, February 27, 2003.
7.�The 10 most stressful events from Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Roche, "The Social Readjustment Rating Scale" -- Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
8.�David B. Wilhelm, M.D., RX For The Soul (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), pp. 24-30.
9.�Charles L. Allen, God's 7 Wonders For You (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1987), pp. 48-49.
Other Resources
Gerald Sloyan, Interpretation -- John (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988), pp. 66-67.
Denis Waitley, Ten Seeds Of Greatness (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1983), pp. 172-185.
Robert Kysar, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament -- John (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), pp. 93-96.
Bonnie St. John Deane, Succeeding Sane (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), p. 168.
