Peace, Be Still

 
Inspired by a post by my aunt this past week, I'm reminded to remember how God knows our fears. He knows our troubles, and our concerns. But he's got this. He knows where we're going, and what's in store for us.

This was one message we received from our church leaders last month in General Conference. Trust in God and he will take care of it.

Some people are deeply disappointed with election results this past week. For me, it's the coronavirus outbreak that is causing me a lot of my grief and stress, especially when I know we could have handled it better than we have. And I know there are yet other sources of stress -- chances are, you are suffering from some kind of storm.

But think on this. There are two types of storms. 

First, there are the external storms. In the case of the coronavirus -- it's a real event killing lots of people, and giving permanent side effects to many survivors. It's causing markets to crash, and even causing other indirect deaths. It is a storm -- not of my making, but something we all have to deal with.

Secondly, there is the internal storm. With the coronavirus -- exactly what can I do about it? I'm just one person with no power to influence anything. What is the danger to me? I could catch it, but that's about it. I may die ... I might not, who knows? So, I can do the best I can to protect myself. Perhaps I could help my friends and family protect themselves as well. But beyond that, there's nothing much more I can do.

Is it worth beating myself up over it? When it comes down to it ... not really. Doing so creates the internal storm that many of us have. In other words, this second storm is self inflicted. We can't choose our external circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them.

This is where Christ and God come in. The video above tells the story of how the artist, Howard Lyon, came to draw the story of Jesus stopping the storm on the boat. He helped his disciples in their time of need, and he can help us in our time of need. We really can have peace in the midst of our external storms. We can learn how to quell our internal storms and enjoy peace.

I invite you to try it for yourselves. Pray to God. Ask for help in quelling your personal storms, whatever they may be. Then you may come to enjoy peace during times of crisis. God has this. He will lead us where we need to go.