Real Peace

October 9, 2015

When Linda and I were first married, we lived in the little hamlet of Alma, NY. It didn't even qualify as a wide spot in the road, consisting of a General Store/Gas Station/Post Office/apartment building, a single bay fire station across the road, a handful of houses, and the EUB church where I began my preaching career. Nestled in the confluence of two valleys, with steep hills all around, it was as close to heaven on earth as any place could be. I remember preaching on more than one occasion about the peace God gives us in Christ. We lived there for 5 1/2 years before moving on to Chicago to attend seminary.

In Chicago, we lived as houseparents in a group home for boys, then took on about a half dozen girls. Our son Nathan was three when we took on that task, and about nine months of living with these kids had him stuttering. The staff psychologist told us it was a result of the stress of our living conditions, whereupon we quit that job to take on a small congregation on the Northwest side of the city, 1600 North and 1200 West, to be exact. At the time, it was a cultural junction of Hispanic, Black, and ethnic European. To say it was a volatile area is an understatement, but it was better by far than the group home. We lived there for nearly two years before moving back to Western New York. The weekend we moved home there was a riot in Humbolt Park, just down the street from where we lived. A year later when we drove back for graduation, we learned that a four year old boy had been murdered and dumped in a garbage can in the alley behind our apartment. Looking back, we wondered how we managed to live there for two years.

That was nearly forty years ago, and I've never since felt comfortable speaking about the peace of God. I've done so, but I've always wondered how much of the "peace" of which I speak is merely the result of peaceful surroundings and how much of it is truly the gift of the Holy Spirit. I've lived in places where there isn't a lot of external peace, but my worst circumstances are positively idyllic compared to what many people experience on a daily basis; terror and turmoil are their daily lot. I am grateful for the peace it is my fortune to experience, even though I cannot always distinguish its origin. Orienting my life around and focusing my mind upon the Gospel is the best I can do, in the hope that when outer circumstances are in turmoil, my inner soul will remain constant...and at peace.