Peace

“and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I was thinking about peace the other day. I have truly not experienced peace as such I am experiencing now. 
Peace is a funny thing actually, so abstract and seemingly fleeting and unattainable, yet when experienced even in the most temporary sense, is an overwhelming force that can either calm any chaos life throws at you,  strengthen you with courage, and spur you on, or crush  you in the emptiness of its absence. Like many of us I have experience both of these extremes, but this is the first time where peace has been put to the real test in my life.   While I am not going to sit here and pretend that moving fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty-six miles away from my family, friends, and everything else that I had known about life to start a virtually new life has not had me slightly stressed at moments, it has not been overwhelming in even the slightest sense of the word. You see, the Lord told me to come here; quite clearly, he laid this before my heart and tugged my stubborn soul along to it. And because of this simple fact, I have been able to rest in peace that only can have one source.  I see that being the case for lots of people here.  It is a cool place, actually, almost of the people here just have a great story of how they got here and how the Lord has been there every step of the way.

                I am starting to think that this may be one of the first lessons that God is showing me, the power of simply resting in his peace. The peace that passes all understanding:  a peace that tells you that things are most certainly out of your control, yet entirely in His, a peace that does not blind you to the circumstances, but points your eyes to the one who holds the world in His hands, a peace that is not conjured up by music, or warm-fuzzies, but one that anchors the soul steady on the Rock of Ages.  

Time is flying

Yea, it’s been awhile since I have been able to post, and quite honestly, so much has happened since. So let’s take it one step at a time.

I took a life the other day; it tasted pretty good, after it was cooked.  Yea, I got to kill a chicken.  It was kind of a weird thing to do; I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoyed it, but not like I am going to need to see a therapist either. I’ll leave some of the more graphic details out for now.  I grabbed the chicken and it willingly laid its head down on the stump.  My first swing wasn’t so good, and consequently it slipped away from me, so I needed an extra set of hands to help me out a bit.  I got it on the third swing. I will say, though, that I got a bit of insight into why many tribes respect the life of animals especially in death.  It’s something that I don’t really notice when I am eating meat, but life is sacrificed for our eating.  Now, I am not going to become a vegetarian or something, but I think it adds a certain amount of thankfulness for my food and leaves me less likely to waste.

                A couple weekends ago we took a trip and it was incredible.  I got the opportunity to head out on a camping trip to Cradle Mountain and then Stanley Beach.  We set out after dinner on Friday, donned in our sick 2 dollar camping hats that we found at Kmart, and drove till we reached a place called the Promised Land, figuring that was a good place to set camp for the night.  So we drove a bit into the forest, down a winding path that led to a lake at the bottom. We couldn’t really find a good spot by the lake so we drove back up the road and set up camp on the shoulder of the road.  It was an abnormally large shoulder so it worked well for camping.  We put the car between us and the road and set up a sick nasty camp site, cooked some sausages, listened to Bob Marley, and overall just had a good time.

                The sleeping wasn’t so good though.  Gravel and sticks pierced my back all night long, and we only had two warm sleeping bags to share between the four of us, so the first night I got stuck with a blanket….a very thin blanket.  It was awful, my body would shiver till it passed out, be awoken shortly after then repeat the process.  Add that to all the scary noises of wallabies hopping through the woods at my feet, and that makes a night of close to no sleep for this city boy.  When we woke it took about an hour for me to warm up,  only to find out that  Dennis had an extra blanket all night… barely even using it.  Gah.

                We made it out to Cradle Mountain next.  That place was absolutely beautiful.  The mountain rose above a crystal clear, pristine lake, set in a cloudless sky.  I think it was about 31 degrees, so absolutely gorgeous day.  The trek wasn’t too bad, only taking three hours to get to the top, but us being the men that we are decided to take on the manly challenge of not having any water till we reached the top, and succeeded. It got tricky at some points, where we had to wip out our awesome tomb raiding skills, to jump crevices and slip through cracks. Getting to the top was so rewarding, I stood on top of the world, 1590 meters high, and had to scream, “I’m king of the world” (a little Office reference).  We then feasted on PB&J and water. Mmmmm.    Being on top of a mountain is a humbling experience.   I was awed at the magnificence of God and made so much more aware of my own insignificance

                That night we made the drive out to Stanley to camp out on the beach.  This is an experience everyone should have.  Camping on a beach is so chill; the sound of the ocean, the clear starry ceiling, the soft sand, and just the amazing fresh air.  Usually penguins can be found on this beach. Yea penguins, and we were completely ready to hunt one of them suckers down and have a great dinner, but no penguins were there this time. During the night, the tide came up.  Very far. A lot farther than we had imagined when we set camp.  Imagine waking up to the sound of crashing waves at your feet, looking up and seeing the ocean that was once a good three hundred feet away, was now about to crash at your feet.  Thankfully it only got about a meter or so from us. The sunrise though had to be one of my favorite parts of this camping spot.  We were on the eastern coast, and seeing the sun come up out of the ocean is indescribable.

                Hopefully I can get the video of the weekend up and some pictures, but I have limited internet usage so no promises. Try this link https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3134580795876 if it works, its the video.  The picture of the spider was the product of a prank on me from some "good" friends. It was put in my bed...

               

Pray for me over the next few months.  I have been reading a lot about prayer lately and have become rather discontent with traditional prayer routines I have followed. Lately I have felt that something needs to change for me to go further with God, and the Spirit has alerted me to this, so I am going on a prayer journey with God. I’m excited to see where this leads me. Pray that I will persevere and that I would be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.

Peace.

II Corinthians 12:9-10