Perfect Peace

April 27, 2023

From Jim Hundertmark

Greetings MAC Family!

In school worships this month, we’ve been talking about meditating on God, His law, and His love. Meditating on these things has many benefits, but there’s one in particular I’d like to illustrate with a story.

About 6 years ago, I was a passenger on what is known in the airline industry as a 'puddle-jumper'. These are the smaller planes used for more local flights. You know, the type you'd get on if you wanted to fly from Atlanta to Chattanooga. When I arrived at the airport, the weather was absolutely terrible; it was snowing and the wind was howling. To my southern eyes, it looked like I would take off in a blizzard.

Now, before I go further, I need to tell you that I'm not necessarily an extremely nervous flyer - I've been on my fair share of flights, but I'm never fully comfortable either. I'm the guy that more or less trusts the machine but is acutely aware that the fuselage is made of aluminum that is about the thickness of 2 nickels lying flat on top of each other. That doesn't seem like a lot of soft metal between me and the ground that is 36,000 feet away.

Back to the story. When I got on the flight, which I knew without a doubt God put me on, I was in a conversation with Him. I needed to know His will in my life, and I was having a Jacob moment, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." As I struggled with God, the plane rose into the storm. It was just a 30 minute flight - good news because we would only be 20,000 feet in the air - somehow that seems better than 36,000.

I continued my conversation with God throughout the flight, which progressively had more and more turbulence. At one point, the extreme jarring caused luggage from the overhead bins to fall. I looked around and saw fear, terror really, as passengers desperately gripped anything and everything they could. The man sitting beside me was gripping both arm rests so tightly that his knuckles were pure white. I looked down at my hands, which were still folded in my lap from my prayers. Then, I smiled, as a verse came to me that I had often heard, but never fully understood until that moment, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." (Isaiah 26:3, NKJV)

MAC Family, God offers and delivers perfect peace. I've experienced it and you can too. Peter had it as he walked on the water towards Christ, but then he looked away from his Messiah and began to fear. When he feared, he sank. The verse says that to receive this perfect peace, we need to learn from Peter's mistake and keep our mind on God; no matter what is happening, we should keep our eyes on Him.

Blessings!

Principal H