I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, it's been a busy time, which is not an excuse, and a really interesting time. 

I believe that in this life people are primarily looking for Life and Love (a friend of mine, quoting another youth pastor, is the one who originally brought these two words and this thought to me).  Everywhere you look companies are selling ways to improve your life in some way, or ways to experience love and fulfillment somehow.  The great thing about following Christ is that He has Life and Love to offer in abundance!  Because God is Life and Love, you can't really fully experience all of Life and Love until you experience God.  You can experience pieces, even significant moments of both, but not the fullness of either without The Initiator and Source of both.

However, as an offshoot of that, Life and Love express themselves differently in different circumstances and times, and one of the primary ways I've been bombarded with recently is their expression, or lack thereof, through peace.  Over and over again over the past week and a half I've either had someone talk to me about needing peace, or I've been in desperate need of it myself.  The truth of this life is that testing, trials, and hard times come frequently...in some cases, everyday.  Jesus promised us as much in John 16:33.  Peace is hard to come by in a broken, dying, war-ravaged world.  Life sometimes seems more like a death sentence that we're just waiting out, rather than a joy-filled adventure full of twists and turns.  Everyday brings new tests and trials...new opportunities to live fully or die slowly. 

The key to peace, and experiencing Life fully, has less to do with our circumstance and situations, and more to do with our beliefs, mindsets, and actions.  It's not a matter of whether you'll be tested (you will), or whether you can experience peace in the testing or trial (it's always available), but how you respond to those situations (Philipians 4:4-7).  A pastor who I intently follow and greatly respect, Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC) said it this way on his blog recently:

"If you’re going through a time of testing right now, keep this in mind:

The way you respond to this test
Determines what you get to do next.

If you fail the test, you must repeat the grade level.  Or, you can pick up the credit hours in summer school.  Either way, wouldn’t you rather just do it right the first time around?

You can’t clep out of any of the courses in God’s divine degree program.  Whatever you’re going through today is a prerequisite for the next level of His plan for your life.

Show up early.  Stay late.  Get a tutor.  Do your homework.  Sharpen your #2 pencils.  And hang in there through your test.

Graduation day is closer than you think…"

Times of testing and trial will always be there, and as you pass one test and move into another, they'll get bigger and bigger, but so will your resolve!  and so will your ability to experience the peace of God in them!  Our God is bigger than...!  Be ready!  Believe!  Experience!  Pass!  And have Peace!