Tension & TruthSample

TENSIONS & POCKETS OF PEACE

A few weeks ago, my youngest son Levi, aged nine, fell whilst playing soccer at school and hurt his leg. That evening whilst soothing his aching muscles in a hot bath, he looked at me and said, “Adam and Eve have a lot to answer for.” I had recently been discussing the impact of sin on the world with my two boys and they have begun realizing how fragile their bodies are now that they are more active. When I was in my thirties, someone once told me that when you hit forty, every past injury comes back to say hello. Now that I am nearing fifty, I see how true that is. The idea of pain-free living without the tension of death and decay sounds way better, right?

Then there are those pockets of peace moments in life. When your admin to-do list is empty, you have extra cash left over at the end of the month. Your kids are playing together like the lion and the lamb are best friends, and you sit there drinking a cup of tea, thinking life is just amazing. Insert scratching record sound. It generally never lasts longer than a few minutes, this is what I call a pocket of peace moment.' Ninety-five per cent of the time, life feels like an uphill tension and there is always something you are painfully navigating your way through.

This is because of the painful tension reality of the curse given in Genesis 3 when sin entered the world. The reality is we were not created for death. However, tensioned living was NOT God’s design for this world. Things like, having pain in childbirth, power struggles between husband and wife, toiling the ground to earn a living and the ultimate pain - death. None of this was God’s desire or plan for us. Jeremiah 29:11 confirms this, God’s plans for us were always for good. However, failing to obey God has resulted in living in tension – a fallen world.

But the story doesn’t end there. We have to hold onto the bigger picture. God had a redemptive plan in place that overcame our mess up. This is not our forever story – that is good news.

For now, life is one long camping trip. The only good thing about camping is knowing you are going home at the end of the week to a bed that doesn’t deflate and where your toilet is not half a mile away. Our bodies are described in 2 Corinthians 5 as a tent that will grow weary, but God is preparing a heavenly body for us. So, for now, we sit in the tension and suck the marrow out of those pockets of peace moments. I like to think of them as little refuelling stations for the soul, and we hold onto the bigger picture knowing the truth that this is not our forever. Our forever is in Christ for all eternity.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:

1. What area of your life brings you the most tension, worries, anxiety and fears?
2. Where do you find yourself experiencing the most pockets of peace moments?
3. What can you do to learn more from those peace spaces?

PRAY

Lord, I give you today (name the tensions you are wrestling with), and I pray that as I lay these tensions and wrestles at your feet, you would fill me with your peace that passes all earthly understandings.