Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
You alone, O Lord, are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
Alleluia! Amen!
I daily struggle to understand these times of tumult in which we now live.
Twenty-eight years ago, I’d have never believed – on that sunny June afternoon of my wedding – that our children and grandchildren now stepping gingerly into adulthood would be slogging forth into a world as broken and fearful as ours.
Since the presidential debate a few weeks ago, the needle on the gauge of concern for our country, our world, and our collective future has hit the far end of the red zone. Alarms for degenerating political processes are well founded. War and rumors of war daily rain down their deadly toll on bodies, souls, and spirits. Many are despairing; some are rejoicing. And those victory laps by some further metastasize the cancer of anxiety within the many!
Saturday’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump, though abhorrent, shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone paying close, honest attention to the violent, enraged state of our collective national being. Gunfire is the bloody, daily reality of our existence, and I struggle to understand the thinking that “it couldn’t happen here.” Because it does happen. Here, there, and everywhere.
Yet it really isn’t all about what “they” are or aren’t doing. Much as maybe we wish it so, it really isn’t all about “them.” But surely is all about us! If we want things looking good in the neighborhood, if we want a better country and a better world, you and I absolutely do play our parts.
Riffing on the reflections of colleagues, here’s how I sense the Spirit outfitting us to play those roles. None of these suggestions will magically heal our divisions. But they will help our brain health, make us more-caring neighbors and better-informed citizens, and thus steel ourselves, our country, and our world for the seemingly impossible work of redemption and reconciliation that must lie ahead if we are to survive.
For starters, instead of frittering away even more of your precious time on mediocre TV shows and movies, tedious reels and videos, and mindless reruns and talking heads, please read a book. A novel, a biography, a history – the genre really doesn’t matter. The librarians are correct: Reading makes us better people. Reading stirs curiosity and rouses compassion. Reading expands horizons, challenges assumptions and, if you’re willing to learn, teaches you something of yourself and others.
Next, rather than instinctively reaching for your smart phone before you’re even out of bed, rather than starting your day doom-scrolling through social media or checking your texts and emails, please spend five or 10 minutes – or even just a minute or two – blending your own mix of spiritual ingredients: scripture, song, prayer, meditation, silence.
Too often we complain that God never seems to do anything. Or that God doesn’t stop bad things from happening. Well, why aren’t more of us stopping bad things from happening? Why do you and I let bad things happen, when God in Christ Jesus clearly shows us how to make our world better through word and deed?!
Finally, however comforting it feels to hole up inside and wall off the outside world, please connect with someone. Do a video chat. Pick up the phone and talk. Or laugh, or cry. Or do all three! Re-connect with a longtime friend, rekindle a long-lost friendship. Mail a letter! Buying a 73-cent stamp surely won’t bust the household budget! Better yet, meet for coffee or lunch. Even greater still, invite someone to join you on your porch or patio, or to gather at your table and break bread together. On your knees, if that feels meaningful!
“Everyone thinks of changing the world,” writes the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. “But no one thinks of changing himself.” Writing to the Philippians, the apostle Paul shares with the Word of the Lord a vision for such game-changing redemption –
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9 NRSV)
Ancient words, ever true: Heaven’s answers to the honest prayers of anxious hearts –
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
You alone, O Lord, are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
Alleluia! Amen!
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on Sunday, July 14, 2024, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa.