Jan. 17, 2014


I think finding peace is life's biggest challenge. We get busy doing all kinds of things, so many thing that we lose track of ourselves in the midst of them. Jesus said "Peace I give you, not as the world gives..." What does that peace look like? What does it feel like. I'm not sure that I have found that peace yet, not in every area of my life. I hope to live in total peace some day. But sometimes we can learn what something is by determining what it isn't.


Peace is not chronic headaches that are induced by anxiety and stress. Peace is not fear. Peace is not that feeling you get in your chest and throat when you've said "yes" to one more person's request when your plate is already too full to deal with. Peace is not that brilliant idea you get when you have finally figured out how to solve someone else's problem. Peace is not being in a hurry all the time.


That general sense of frantic that you live with, that's not peace. Wishing you could get sick so you'd have an excuse to rest, that's not peace. Doing something you would really like to do, but not enjoying it because you are in a hurry, that's not peace. I could go one, but I don't think I need to.


For the most part we do not live in the peace that Christ offered to us. It's like a gift extended to us, free. So what does this peace really look like? How do we get it? The Word of God speaks to it in so many ways. It would take weeks of writing to cover it all, so here it is in a nutshell, as I see it.


We need to slow down, relax, and quit trying to run the universe for God. I'll give an example. The apostle said to 'live quietly minding our own business'. How many of us do that? How much time do we spend rehearsing and arguing with people that are not even in the room? Our friends, spouse, in-laws, people at church, in the grocery store; we observe their lives in a snippet of time and then spend the next hour deciding whether they deserve to live because their kid's hair was dirty. Wow, what a huge amount of negative energy going out at their expense that they will not even benefit from. Or, in most cases, they would not benefit from it at all. Yet, we do it.


Jesus said, "don't worry about tomorrow, today has enough worry of it's own." Yet, most of us spend the majority of today worrying about tomorrow. Not thinking about tomorrow, but worrying about tomorrow. In fact, we are so worried about the future (as though we can control it) that we can't even focus on what we are doing right now let alone enjoy it, because we are already thinking about what we are going to do, supposed to be doing, or wish we could be doing.


The Psalmist wrote, 'I lie to sleep, I wake again; because the Lord sustains me.' That's about as simple as it gets. Friends, we do not even have the power to wake ourselves up. Just think about that. What person has the power to wake themselves up once they are asleep? It requires an alarm clock or a person from the outside to interrupt the mild coma that brings renewal to our weary bodies.


 It is God who has the power to give life and it is His business to sustain it. God is not cruel, nor is He on a power trip, He is just God and we are not! He has kept the privilege of issuing life and death. In fact life or death happening outside the act of God is sin.


We are helpless with out God. In fact we are so helpless that the Bible tells us that it is Christ that holds our world together. The entire cosmos would fly apart if it were not for Christ and His divine power holding it all together!


The Bible also tells us that God has numbered our days. Our lives are in His hands.


So what does this have to do with whole-foods living? Everything! There are two reasons that it applies. One is that we can eat all the wholesome, organic foods we can find and still die of lack of peace. Jesus never said, "eat organic", but He did say "Be still and know that I am God." The teachings of Christ are all about 'living life and living it to the fullest" and never does He mention what to eat. Why am I making this point? Because it is fundamental to having the whole-foods diet make a difference.


It's the message that Jesus tried to get through to Martha. "Martha, Martha, you are troubled about so many things. Mary has chosen the greater thing and it will not be taken from her." Was Jesus mad because Martha wanted to supply organic bread for her dinner party? No. He was desperate for her. He wanted her to let go of the world's way of prioritizing and enjoy the freedom He meant for her to have.


See, the world says, you have to fix it, you have to research it, you have to work harder, work faster, work longer or others won't be pleased with you, God won't be pleased with you. Jesus said, I took care of all of it, just come and sit with me. Dinner still had to be made in the Martha/Mary household, but the heart behind it for Martha was self-reliance. Martha said to herself, "If I don't do it who will". Martha's actions were fear based. How often are our actions and motives fear-based?


Jesus saw Martha wringing her hands and accusing her sister and desired to reach her where she was; to speak truth into her troubled and fearful mind. Mary knew dinner needed to be made. She just wasn't worried about it because Jesus was there!!


I am a Martha by nature and I deal with fear being the motive behind a lot of what I do. If you are like me, you have found yourself in a whirlwind of events that are all about Jesus and yet when you stop and look for Him you find Him resting on the couch over there. You have forgotten that Jesus is not coming, He is here.


Jesus, through His Salvation and Word has given us permission to not have to figure it all out. He has given us permission to relax, rest, enjoy, breath. Live one day at a time. Why do we find it so hard to believe Him that it will work out if we do it His way?


I think the uncertainties of life, sorrows, and fears drive us from rest in Him, but we can trust Him. We can believe Him that His way is best. We can have the courage to let go of the side of the pool and float in the deep water with Him. Floating is easy, but we must be in over our heads to float. Get it?


How many times did Jesus say, "Don't be afraid" He knows us so well. He wants us to have the courage to do as Mary did and set all worries aside in exchange for His presence. We will not experience Jesus healing presence as long as we are saying, "ya, ya, I got this."


Our food choices make a difference, but if our faith is in our food then we will be greatly disappointed.


The other reason I think it is important to mention is because I must face the question, "What if we change our diet and Owen's Parkinson's still gets worst?" If my faith is in my power to change Owen's disease with diet, then I will be devastated if it does not work. Notice though, that my faith would be in what I can do to control, correct, or heal Owen's body. Yikes, that would be rather arrogant of me and my faith would be misplaced.


So why even try? Well that's like saying, "If our sin shows God's grace then we should sin to show his grace." I am not changing our diet so we can live forever. Everyone will die some day. I am changing our diets so that the days that God has given us can be lived in the most healthful way. Like Jesus said to Peter, "What business is it of yours what I do with my servant?"


 Do you see the difference? One relies on self and makes a moral issue out of what we eat and produces stress and worry. The other relies on God for our life and this produces freedom and joy.


I thought it important to make this distinction because we can so easily take good things that God is showing us to do and make moral, binding, condemning issues out of them.


So do we want peace? All we have to do is obey Jesus, take His advice, trust Him. He has a solution to all that overwhelms us.


So, my motto:  "Enjoy your daily work. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we might die. Morbid? No, just wise. If it was good enough for Solomon it's good enough for me.


Until next time....