The Place of Contentment

I didn’t realize what a big day that my wife and I had yesterday until I finally sat down for dinner!  After attending to the normal morning activities of getting my wife up and ready for the day, breakfast and writing the blog, I switched into high gear as I washed Piper’s hair and got us both prettied up for her appointment in Durham.  Following a quick walk with the dog we jumped in the Mustang and headed west!

I must admit that the getting to and coming from was the best part of the trip for me!  Whew!  I’ve never driven a car that can hit sixty miles an hour as fast as our newest acquisition – not that I was speeding mind you - but like a former Corvette driving Pastor we had once said: “They don’t tell you how long it should take you to reach the speed limit, do they?” So yeah… I took his advice and drove there and back with a happy little smirk on my face!  I think that Piper also enjoyed my childlike glee behind the wheel!

As we were believing for, the appointment went well and Piper got a good report.  This time around was pretty active though as they poked and prodded her quite a bit (including the use of a pin…) to check her physical reactions, reflexes and responses to various types of external stimuli. 

The Neurologist and PA also agreed with her GP in that Piper’s muscle tone was good and that she looks healthy and well cared for.  It always amazes me when the female care-givers seem to notice and comment on how nice her hair looks!  I guess my attention to details like clean, combed and styled hair along with lip stick and a nice looking outfit is a good thing!  I just want her presence to mimic how she always cared for herself!  I am fully expecting Piper to just step right back into where she left off in caring for herself without missing a beat or having to catch her grooming up to the level of her norm!

By the time we ate, I was ready for bed… tired but very contented and thankful!  That contentedness came to mind this morning as I re-read John 14:27 where Jesus told His disciples before His final hours on this earth, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (NKJV)  Today it was the word “leave” that reached out and grabbed my attention.  A little investigation into the inference of the thought behind it opened up some new areas of understanding to me.

Strong’s and Thayer’s describe the word as inferring “to send, denoting separation or departure.  To bid going away as of a husband divorcing his wife.”  Comparing Jesus’ statement about His peace in similarity to a divorce immediately brought the realization that the peace that Jesus was going to give them was as legal divorce paperwork that would officially separate or divorce believers from the turbulent relationship of their partnership with the unfaithful world.

With Jesus’ peace, we no longer are connected or accountable to the world’s standards of anger, defeat, sin, sickness, hopelessness, unforgiveness, and failure!  Jesus’ peace gives us a whole new outlook on life’s situations!  Yes we live in a fallen world, and yes we will face and have to deal with problems, but we don’t have to face them with a sense of utter hopelessness.  God’s love, His faithfulness, His “I will never neglect or abandon you” (Joshua 1:5 God’s Word ©) truth and the promises in His Word will always be there and be true and real for you!

When it was time to help Piper up for the day today, I stood up from the kitchen table and glanced back down at my myriad of notes when I suddenly understood some of the frustration I felt when people we loved confusingly reacted through the world’s standards to our beginning steps of faith toward Piper’s complete recovery.  It was as though they were attempting to pull us back into a turbulent relationship that we had left behind MANY years ago! 

The idea of going back to THAT rocky and unstable union was abhorrent and a bit sickening to us!  Why go back to a horrid place of hopelessness when we have intimately experienced the love of God on a very personal and oft time repeated basis throughout the last 39+ years of our marriage.  Stepping back DID NOT make any sense AT ALL!  What is that very graphic scripture say about the dog who “goes back to his vomit, so a fool repeats his stupidity.” (Proverbs 26:11 God’s Word ©)

Sorry… I didn’t mean to paint that picture in your mind… but you get the seriousness of my repulsion to their idea!  As believers, you and I are legally released from all of our former ties with the rollercoaster lifestyle that the world gives.  My word of wisdom to you today is to NOT GO BACK!  Stay within the limitless boundaries of God’s loving ways!  Choose to stay in the contentment of His peace that far surpasses our natural understanding and sets us free to be in line to receive all that God has for us in each situation we face in our daily lives!  Have a super day!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or in Whose ways I am expecting to stay in today?”