Drowning and God's Brilliance

One of the things I love about our new church is that every Sunday, they publish in the bulletin, the scripture lessons for the next week. That way I can read them each day and guess what the pastor might preach on- usually I'm wrong! But that just goes to show you that the word is alive and speaks to each of us differently.

This week, I'm reading Psalm 29, Jonah 2:1-9, Romans 9:1-5 and Matthew 14: 22-33. There's a lot about water this week. Jonah's praying from the depths of the ocean, Jesus is walking on the storm tossed sea, and Psalm 29 mentions floods and thunder. I haven't quite figured out how Paul's burden for the Israelites ties in to all this water (Romans 9). But maybe I'm just overly sensitive to the sensation of drowning lately!

One verse particularly caught my attention this morning; Psalm 29:3

God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters. (The Message)

The whole rest of the psalm speaks of God's thunder and power. But what caught my attention here was the reference to "flood waters". Sure, there's power in flood waters but they bring such devastation, hopelessness, destruction and chaos. And God's face, his countenance, streams brilliantly across this devastating chaos- this depressing, vast hopelessness.

I guess I found it encouraging to know that God could overpower the chaos in my life and shine on it, turning it into a thing of his beauty. Somehow that's even more amazing than seeing him thunder across deserts or set oaks to dancing.

So I'm praying for his beauty to shine across the flood waters of my life and waiting for the strength and peace that he promises.

Full Life vs. Peace

Ok! ok! Alright already! I'm back! (It's nice to feel loved and missed!- thanks!)

So, you wonder (or maybe you don't) what on earth has kept me from blogging! And of course, I'd have to say it was a VERY FULL LIFE!! We've had holidays, traveling, kids out of school, company from far and near (which have ALL stayed up WAY past their bedtimes!) We've bought a new ride and boogered it up. I've gotten new insurance and it doesn't work, kids have had basketball, and ballet, and concerts, and doctors' appointments... the list goes on and on! Wow! And this is what I dreamed of when I was little and couldn't wait to grow up?

Really, when I was little, all I ever wanted was to grow up into a "full" life. I thought for life to be full and complete, all I would need was a husband to love me. Then maybe some kids to take care of and love. Of course, I'd need a job that I loved and in which I found personal satisfaction and respect. To get all that (including the loving husband) I had to go to college. There I learned that education was imperative for having a complete life. So after I got married, I had to get even more education. While in pursuit of that, I discovered that a full life really wasn't fully complete until I had a house in which the children didn't have to all share one tiny bedroom and a job that made more money and heralded more respect. I was hot on the trail of the American Dream.

And somewhere in all of that, I crashed.

This morning, while reading in Isaiah, I noticed that Eugene Peterson had translated some of my favorite passages wrong. I've grown up spiritually in the NIV. So when I read Isaiah 26:3, I read that God will keep me in perfect peace if my mind is steadfast on him. And further on, in verse 12, God establishes peace for me. In Job 22:21, I am instructed to submit to God and I will be at peace with him and prosperity (ahh...I like that word!) will come to me. And then back in Isaiah 27:5 I am invited to make peace with God. Ultimately, in Romans 5:1, Paul tells me that the whole process of justification by faith (difficult to understand with just those words) will result in peace with God (that I can appreciate!) But what did Dr. Peterson do wrong? In every instance, he translated the word peace as full life, whole life or completeness. So out of curiosity, I flipped over to the most famous of peace verses: Isaiah 9:6. Was Jesus going to be the Prince of the whole life?!?

And guess what?

I read:

His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness!

Now what does one do with that? One goes to the lexicon!

This word is the Hebrew word ~wlX or shalowm meaning:

1. completeness, soundness, welfare, peace
   1. completeness (in number)
   2. safety, soundness (in body)
   3. welfare, health, prosperity
   4. peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment
   5. peace, friendship
      1. of human relationships
      2. with God especially in covenant relationship
   6. peace (from war)
   7. peace (as adjective)
   -Crosswalk.com

There it was- the number one word in the definition: Completeness. Peace with God is equated to completeness- a whole, complete, full life.

When my world came crashing down around me, I realized that I wasn't at peace with anyone- not my family, my friends, myself, and least of all God. In my struggles to find that full and complete life, I had abandoned all to the pursuit and in it, I lost all semblances of peace. But God is a good God who doesn't forget his children when they stray.

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.
-Isaiah 54:10

And

Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I will never forget you- never. Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands.
-Isaiah 49:15-16

When we come back to him, we find that he has wiped the slate of all our wrongdoings. There is nothing left of our sin. "Come back, Come back. I have redeemed you," he calls. (Isaiah 44:22). This was his plan from the very beginning. A plan for redemption and reconciliation. A plan for a full and complete life, at peace with him. Why do we have to learn the hard way? Why don't we just listen? It's a fair question: God asks it himself.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river (NIV)

or in Dr. Peterson's translation:

If you had listened all along to what I told you, your life would have flowed full like a river, blessings rolling in like waves from the sea. (Isaiah 48:18)

So there's nothing wrong with a full life. In fact, it's what God had planned for me all along. It's just that I have been faithful to the human way of life, just like the Israelites, rather than faithful to God's way- a way so high and above me that it's beyond my understanding.

I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
-Isaiah 55:8-9

But when I submit to him and his high and mighty ways, he promises that I'll go out in joy and be led into a whole and complete life (Isaiah 55:12)