Peace in a week of anything but

Last week in America was a time of anything but peace. The Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt following. Ricin in the mail to a senator and the President. A huge fertilizer plant explosion leveling a wide swath of a town in Texas. Lives lost in the two explosions and many injured.

Sometimes we might find ourselves wondering when something interesting is going to happen on the 24 hour news talk of modern media and online information. We might treat life like an interested spectator and forget about the real lives touched and seared by ‘interesting’ news events. But last week got most watchers past their boredom, at least for a bit. Even to the insensitive, it felt like too much. Too much was happening. Too much was wrong. Too much was out of control. What disaster was coming next?

I know that doesn’t describe everyone’s feelings, but it did seem like the prevailing mood was shaken. Of course, that’s a very American, comfortable mentality. In the middle of the Newtown child killings last year or Superstorm Sandy (neatly labeled as a media event) or China’s earthquake this week or Syria or Afghanistan or Iraq or many African countries today or the Balkan countries not too many years ago – in the middle of any of those wrenching realities, no one there felt like a bored spectator.

But last week in America, it did challenge our calm and even scrambled our sense of direction a little. What was coming next? Couldn’t they program a little less carnage into the news cycle? Obviously, there’s a challenge here to find more honest compassion and identification as we watch someone else’s troubles from afar. There’s something more, also.

Whether we watch it or live it, turmoil and terror challenge our personal sense of calm and control. The question arises – where does our peace come from? Psalm 62, verses 5 – 8, gives a good reminder:

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour our your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.”

In our God is the only place peace is found. This truth is how we can not only be comforted in the storm, but actually grow and be strengthened. The more we know that we know that the Lord is the only one with whom we can walk through the storm, the more the waters of our heart are calmed, even amidst adversity. It is true, and a truly great truth to teach to and model for our children, when times are tough, and when times seem pretty comfortable. Peace will not be found in circumstances.