Yesterday I was told to stay home from work and rest… wife’s orders. I asked if I could take a personal retreat for about three hours and she said I was good to go. So, off I went to Lyon’s Lake just up the road from me. I met a friend who was half-way through his distance mountain run with tons of vertical included. I got all pumped about the trail-running love I have and the beauty of God’s creation, in which I was about to celebrate Christ for the next three hours. I looked forward to three hours of pacing myself through God’s Word, prayer, and time just resting and listening to what God wanted me to hear. My retreat continued into my quiet time this morning.

As I sat by the lake, I experienced a huge amount of calm in my soul. I soaked in the beauty of Psalm 40:1-3 again… can’t quickly pass up this passage (CLICK HERE FOR POST ON Psalm 40).

For the Christian, I believe this lake is a picture of the peace we can experience and demonstrate for one another and for the non-believer. We can be like this lake, calm, teaming with life, ever-overflowing with grace, enjoyable to be near, calming, and nourishing. Why? Because we are bearers of God’s Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As messengers, we carry news of the King around us and out from us to a hurting and dying world. There is more courage in a resolute believer than anyone else I’ve met. A resolved and calmed old soul Christian is one of the most refreshing souls I’ve encountered. I want to be an old soul believer for my friends throughout my life. I want that grit and grace of encountering life along with my siblings in Christ, encountering Christ together, going and sharing our hope through deed and then word with a hurting world, and then returning together again to worship and pray and celebrate Christ together.

May we be people of peace for one another firstly. Only then can we increasingly be people of peace for the hurting world around us. If we can’t get along as siblings in Christ, bearing with one another in love, how can we presume that we will have the gentle spirit of grace that Christ demonstrated for us as he went after the weakest and most needy to care for them and introduce the eternal peace available only in Him? May we lay down our pride together and band together in prayer and community, worshiping our God together in response to what Christ has done and Who He is. Then, as we do this together, God will give us confidence and peace to go through our neighborhoods and towns to share this peace, to be people of peace for a distressed world around us.

– Torrey