“Lakeview”
“A picture of peace is not
necessarily a place of peace.”
In December of 2008, I captured this scene of the lake adjacent to my San Jose condo. The thought that occurred to me while standing there, soaking in the warm rays of the sun and embracing the vibrant autumn view was this: A picture of peace is not necessarily a place of peace. The only true place of peace is at the corner of “Surrender Street” and “Acceptance Alley.” It is our place in God that remains placid in the recesses of our soul even in the midst of outward turmoil. It is a relationship with God, not a region of sod!
Little did I know that barely a year later I would embrace a long distance relationship that eventually moved my life from one coast to the other; leaving all that was familiar: family, friends, geography, ministry, etc. For several months it seemed that heaven had beckoned and the welcome sunshine of Florida had found a new constituent!
An unexpected breakup left me totally alone for 100 days in this strange paradise! Upon returning to California to a rental unit (as I was forced to become a landlord, as my condo was leased because of being “under water”), I grappled with the seeming incongruity of it all. I had returned, not to the familiar, but to a depressing sense of displacement. Yes, family and friends remained. But somehow my life seemed upside down even after returning to what had once been familiar.
It is with that realization that I more firmly embraced the promise of Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)
Our place of peace is truly in God, and not in our circumstances. I continue to more fully embrace this truth each day. Perhaps your life, too, in some way “looks” very different from what you had been used to. It is God’s invitation to us to surrender to His embrace, believing that He knows the end from the beginning. —David Veliquette, webmaster