Fear or Peace

Violence can erupt suddenly and without warning like a volcano. Brutality can shake us unexpectedly like an earthquake. The destruction of human lives amidst the shootings at Virginia Tec is devastating for both the victims and survivors.

The ripple effect of these senseless murders is felt across our nation. When I heard about these events my mind immediately flashed to my girls attending college hundreds of miles from home. While they are at a Christian college, they are just miles from downtown Philadelphia; the city of brotherly love has its own dark shadows. What stops someone from coming onto their campus with the intent to kill? What is to prevent such a heinous act from happening where we live? How can we have any assurance that we or those we love are safe?

The fact of the matter is that we cannot have any guarantee of peace and safety in our world. Without warning the evil in our world can spill out upon us. Just this past Sunday at the community service Susie and I sat behind a woman whose daughter had been murdered. Just when you think such violence won’t come near your family, you find it dangerously close.

If my thoughts or yours were to be fixated upon the terror that fills the evening newscast, then I’m sure we would be paralyzed with fear. And with our 24/7 news media we don’t have to wait; we can watch as the bad news happens with increasing regularity. What are we to do?

• [3] You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! [4] Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
  Isaiah 26:3-4 (NLT)

God wants us to have a change of thinking. It’s not that we stick our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening around us. Instead the things that cause us fear are kept in our peripheral vision and we focus our attention upon the Lord. Our confidence and hope is in God who will never fail us and will keep us in perfect peace even through the worst storms.

These words of hope come from Isaiah’s apocalypse; in chapters 24-27 Isaiah saw the days before us, the end of the world as we know it. It’s true; things will only go from bad to worse. But we do not need to fear! When we see the increase of evil and violence we can know that we remain safe in the hands of God who knows the end from the beginning. God is in control; He has ordered the events of our lives and will give us peace regardless of what happens around us.