The Path to Peace

      By Fern Horst

"Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust…. I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." (Psalms 16:1; 8-11)

As I write this a dear uncle of mine is very sick from cancer. Barring a miracle stopping the progression of disease in his earthly body, his spirit will soon be in the presence of His Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I have found it difficult to watch his body deteriorate and weaken. But each time I've visited him or talked to him on the phone, I have been immeasurably blessed and my spirits lifted.

I feel privileged to be a witness to his willing acceptance of what God has for him, even if it includes physical death. He has not spent his time since the diagnosis railing in anger or bitterness or endless questions, but has instead looked back over his life and recounted God's faithfulness throughout his life. He has verbally expressed, repeatedly, his readiness to go Home to be with the Lord if this is the time God is calling him Home. His acceptance is especially poignant in light of the fact that as he lays dying, the granddaughter he had so looked forward to, was just born.

I have often heard people say that it's okay to be angry with God, that God can handle it, and indeed He can. He remembers that we are dust, the Bible tells us. He won't wipe us off the face of the earth if we express our doubt and our questions and our rage. He'll love us anyway, and gently hold us while we beat His chest with our angry fists.

But as I have witnessed my uncle's peace from the day his doctor called him with the devastating diagnosis, I realize there is a better way, and that is in trust and acceptance. Trusting God's plan for him and accepting it has given my uncle and aunt peace, as well as the rest of us who love them. It gave him more time to spend expressing his love to others. It gave him more time to live life to the fullest. It gave him more opportunities to witness God's goodness to those around him. It is through the process of dying that people like my uncle show us how to live.

As we face our own difficulties in life, whether it is the diagnosis of a devastating disease, the death of a loved one, the breakup of what we thought was a promising relationship, or a dismissal from a job we loved or depended on, we have two choices. We can either become angry at God and question what He's doing, or we can accept the difficulty as the next step of God's plan for us. The former costs us time and energy, and we become a drain to those around us. The latter gives us peace and joy, and makes us a blessing to others.

A woman who learned that the path to peace is in trust and acceptance was Amy Carmichael, a single woman who was a missionary in India. For the over 50 years she ministered there, she never once returned home. She experienced many difficulties as she spent her life rescuing children from prostitution in the temples in India and providing a home for them. For the last 20 years of her life she was an invalid, and spent much of that time writing inspirational books and poems. One of the poems she left us, and whose last line has been quoted repeatedly, expresses well this path to peace:

In Acceptance Lieth Peace

© 2007 Fern Horst

NOTE: For the past eight years we have been basing these devotionals on the readings from the Bible Reading Schedule available on our website. For the next number of devotionals, however, we will be doing a series of devotionals from the Psalms.

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