We all have those days…those moments that test our strength. Those moments that test our endurance, and our trust in the Lord. You know what I am talking about.

It can begin with a single thought or a single action…something not too big that explodes our calm…something that just grows…almost as if it has a will of it’s own. But most of the time it doesn’t. We give it the ‘will’…we give it the power to grow and over take the peace of our souls. Yes, sometimes there are things that we really cannot control. Bad things that happen… or things that happened many years ago… that refuse to let us go…

Maybe it is rumors about your character. Things that get uttered… gossips that spread… breathing life into this dragon… giving it the chance to grow and take on a life of its own. An ugly life… intent on ruining the peace of your soul. So often these lies wrapped in the distortion of darkness and doom… threaten to consume us… body and soul. What are we to do? Just how are we supposed to remain calm…and carry on…as it were? Just what kind of person can endure? How are we to manage and cope? Pray tell, what are we to do?

Trust in the Lord. Easy enough…right? Well, most of the time when we are faced with a violent storm…or chaos raging in wild rings about us…we forget this simple act…this simple action of praying and trusting in the Lord. Oh, we may say we are trusting…we may actually fall to our knees, lamenting in our anguish…pleading with God, but we are not really giving it over to the Lord… We are hanging onto the doom and destruction…for some reason we are not letting it go to God…

Why is that? He knows everything about us anyway….So perhaps it is because this chaos adds a bit of turmoil to our soul and helps us forget…numbs the pain?… Or perhaps we feel that God doesn’t really want all of our garbage… and in a bit of our pride, we only want to give Him what is good. Yes, this is understandable, but it is wrong.  And it is not the reason He came. It is not the reason He sent His Only Begotten Son.

No, He came so that we might live. He came so that we might find peace. Not in this world. Not in all this crazy world we are orbiting in. No, He came to give us Himself as our peace. When all the world is falling in bits and pieces around us. When everything we have ever known or loved is gone…or falling away…we have to remember the Lord. We have to remember the Cross of Christ…we have to reach up to His most precious body…pulling ourselves in close…putting ourselves in the shadow of the One who saved us…We have to let go of our pride… And we have to close our eyes to the world…close our ears to the whispers of the evil one…and we have to trust...put all of our remaining strength in the Promise of the Lord…trusting that He is Who He said He was… letting everything else fall around us… but never letting go of the Crucifix...never letting go of the Lord…And if we remain firm, standing at the foot of the Cross long enough…He will pour out His mercy…He will pour out His grace... allowing our disquiet to be filled with peace. Christ’s peace. Bringing calm into our soul again.