Guarantees

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, for one minute before reading.**

    I want guarantees. I work for guarantees. I get frustrated when I cannot guarantee myself or my family certain things. I want to guarantee that we will always have money, have a house, have food, be protected physically, emotionally and so on. I want guarantees especially for my children.
    We are not guaranteed health or comfort, money or security, food or shelter. We are not guaranteed anything and it can be exhausting trying to set up those guarantees. There is nothing wrong with those things and it is good that we protect, provide, serve, work, etc. It is the striving to make them guarantees that is wearing and futile. When I strive to make guarantees I am essentially saying, “God, I don’t need you, I got this under control”.
        God is the only one who can give us guarantees. The guarantees we have are based in who He is. He is true, He is good and He is so much more. In Christ we are guaranteed eternal life. In Christ we are also guaranteed hardship in this life (I don’t like this one). In Christ we are guaranteed the love of an amazing Father.
    Do you strive for guarantees? For securities? What is God calling you to let go of and trust Him with?

**Sit again in quiet for as long as is available to you.**

An Oxymoron

**Please take one minute to sit, breathe deeply and seek quiet.**

    I recently watched a friend singing “Joy to the World”, knowing that his world had fallen apart and he was struggling deeply. I thought to myself, an oxymoron is living out before my eyes.
    Sometimes life seems anything but joyful. It is difficult to find joy in the midst of loss, pain and anxiety. It is difficult to find joy in the midst of hardship and heartache because these things in and of themselves do not contain joy. They contain confusion, chaos and suffering. Joy is very difficult to find because it is not there. But Jesus is. Jesus is with us in the confusion, the chaos, the suffering. Joy may be difficult to find but Jesus is there. Jesus is our joy and he is with us. He is with us in the suffering, in the loss, in the “I can’t breathe because this is so painful” moments. There can be joy because we have Jesus. He is the only reason that there can be joy in the midst of evil, pain and suffering.
    We live life as an oxymoron of joy and pain, Jesus and suffering. He lived life as an oxymoron and we rest in the tension because we know the joy that is relationship with Jesus.

**Please take as much time as is possible to sit and reflect.**

 

Peace Needed Blood

**Before you being reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for one minute.**
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Colossians 1:19-20

    It seems odd that peace would come through blood. To think that peace needed blood. Many times I think of peace as merely the absence of pain, turmoil, hardship. Sometimes this is true. Peace with God came through death, it came through shed blood. Who would have thought that peace needed blood? The life of Jesus, lived perfectly, ended with a bloodshed death. The blood that dripped is the blood that has cleansed our lives and has reconciled us with God.
    Jesus is our only opportunity for peace with God. It started with the incarnation, the birth of Jesus when God was PLEASED to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus. He was pleased to become fully human. The humility of God is enormous and to take it even further, the humility goes even to death, to the shedding of blood.
    How has peace come into your life through hardship, through sacrifice?

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**