Guest Post: “Peace Like A River” ~ By Hubby

PEACE LIKE A RIVER

By Hubby (Garrett Lloyd)

You know you serve a merciful God when he goes to such great lengths to show you how totally powerless you actually are.  You know He loves you when, in amazement you discover that you’re actually O.K with that powerlessness.  You know you’re on the right path when you have absolutely no idea where this path will lead but at complete peace with the uncertainty.

Three weeks ago, I was a stressed out worker bee,  worried about how I could perform in my job at a level to meet my family’s needs with fiscal cliffs looming and costs of living rising.  How could I protect my family from moral decline, social unrest, and the variety of threats families around the country and the world seem to be encountering on a weekly if not daily basis.  I was tired but determined to be everything my family needed me to be even if it killed me.  Then God, in His wisdom, did a funny thing.  He benched me! He pulled me out of the game, set me on the sidelines and said “O.K. now watch”.

I left work a couple of hours early on a Wednesday afternoon when a stomach ailment that had bothered me for a couple of weeks started acting up.  I thought I should knuckle under and go to the Dr.  so I could get a pill of some kind to “fix it” so I could get back in the game.   I haven’t been back to work since.

There’s a Tim McGraw song that begins…

I was in my middle forties with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me in my tracks.  I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays, talking ‘bout the options and thinking “bout sweet time.

Well, that about sums it up!  The tests revealed colon cancer, the Dr. said surgery was necessary and we’d know more once the mass was removed.  And do you want to know the weird part?  I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t scared or nervous.  My wife was just as at peace as I was and the only explanation I can come up with is that God filled us so full of his peace and love and mercy that there just wasn’t any room for fear or doubt.  We both marveled at the fact we could feel so positive and upbeat in light of what we were facing.

The image that comes to mind when I try to explain this peace is that I imagine I am in an inner tube floating down a river,  there is nothing I can do change to direction of the river,  I can’t influence the speed of the current, I can’t negotiate with the temperature of the water.  My only reasonable course of action is to relax and enjoy the ride.  The true revelation comes when I realize I’ve been in that inner tube all along, heading toward the destination God planned for me since I first accepted him as my savior.   I haven’t always felt the peace I have now.  Trust me, I’ve spent years, even decades, flailing and splashing and making all kinds of noise, wasting all kinds of energy trying to get that river to take me where I wanted to go.  But God in all his wisdom, patience and glory loved me enough to bring me into complete submission to him.  Not because of me but in spite of me.

My prayer for you who are fighting against the currents or kicking against the pricks is that The Sovereign God of Mercy brings you to that place of total submission where you too can find peace like a river.

Amen

 

Tim McGraw “Live Like You Were Dying”

 

He said, “I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me on a dime”
”I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays, talking ‘bout the options and talking ‘bout sweet times”
I asked him when it sank in  that this might really be the real end;”How’s it hit ‘cha when you get that kind of news? Man, what’d ya do?”

He said ”I went skydiving  I went rocky mountain climbing  I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu

And I loved deeper  And I spoke sweeter And I gave forgiveness I’d been denyin”
And he said, “Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dyin’”
He said, “I was finally the husband That most the time I wasn’t, and I became a friend, a friend would like to have”
”And all of a sudden goin’ fishin’ Wasn’t such an imposition and I went three times that year I lost my dad. Well I, I finally read the good book And I took a good long hard look At what I’d do if I could do it all again and then”
”I went sky-diving.   I went rocky mountain climbing  I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu And I loved deeper And I spoke sweeter And I gave forgiveness I’d been denyin’”
And he said, “Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dyin’”
Like tomorrow was a gift And ya got eternity to think about what to do with it What did you do with it? What did I do with it? What would I do with it?
Skydiving I went rocky mountain climbing I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu And I loved deeper  And I spoke sweeter  And I watched an eagle as it was flyin’
And he said, “Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dyin’”
To live like you were dyin’  To live like you were dyin  ‘To live like you were dyin’ To live like you were dyin’