Where Did We Put It?

As seen in the HEARTbeat and Village Voice

Where Did We Put It?

            Have you ever looked and looked for something, only to find it in the last place you look?  Certainly works that way for me.  How about a non-productive search?  We look everywhere until we give up.  It’s only when we relax a few days later does the last location pop into our head and we walk straight toward the searched-for item.

            It’s funny how that happens.  When we relax and stop working our brain muscle so hard it seems to work the best for us!  We quit trying and trying, searching and searching, and all of a sudden a name we’ve been trying to remember or the location of a sought-after book pops into our head.  The problem is we have so much going on in our brains these days it’s hard to slow everything down.

            When we enter a search into a database in a computer, do we sit back and worry about the effort being made to find the searched-for piece of information?  Of course we don’t.  We let the computer do what it was designed to do.  In due time the answer will be given if it is in the searched area or program.  It really is a simple process when we relax and let the search play out.

            Have we misplaced peace?  You might say peace is found on a lake early of a morning fishing.  Some might say they find peace on a golf course, walking a finely manicured green space.  While others find peace rocking on the back porch listening to the birds sing for joy at the newly filled bird feeders.  But is all this lasting?  We turn on the TV or the radio and listen to the latest rant about the opposite political party, the number of youth killed or injured in a major city over a weekend, or the total dismantling of a social media post by a famous individual.  You will not find peace in any of this, nor in a multiple of other locations.

            Jesus spoke many things to the apostles during His time with them at what we call the Last Supper.  He told them He must die, which caused an uproar.  He told them He must go away, but they said they did not know how to follow.  He also told them the Father would send the Advocate, or the Holy Spirit to teach and guide them.  Then He told them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  Was He telling them to sit back and let the Holy Spirit do what He was intended to do, to be the Comforter?

            At one time Jesus left us peace.  Where did we put it?  Have we gotten so caught up in the world’s problems we’ve misplaced it?  Searching for His peace in the world will yield nothing.  But if we let God’s peace fill us, through the Holy Spirit, we will have the perfect peace Jesus left for us to find and treasure!