Baking Peace

The peace of God will guard your minds and hearts. Philippians 4:7

Have you ever had one of those crazy moments when you nearly did something completely ridiculous and then stopped and said, “WHOA, I better step back and take a breath, I’m loosen it”?  I had that moment last week.  It’s been a little hectic lately but God is good and I was clippin along with everything he was asking me to do and then came the God thump.  It came when I was in my kitchen which is the place that centers me in the chaos. In my kitchen, I am happy because I love feeding people; it’s good for my soul!  It brings me joy when people enjoy what I serve them and it always gives me a time to pray for my family and those who will eat what I’m whippin up in my kitchen. I love the feeling of serving that bubbles in my heart when I’m busy in the kitchen. When the God thump came, I was making a batch of cinnamon rolls for somebody who needed a little lovin and a little lift.  Like usual, it was late and I was trying to cram one more thing into the day. I had the dough all  rolled out and it was smeared with warm butter and sprinkled generously with brown sugar and in a quick twist to the cupboard I grabbed and was about to sprinkle a big ole dose of cinnamon on top of the sugar.  Thank goodness the thump came and I paused a nano-second to realize that I was about to plaster the buttery, sugary dough with CHILI POWDER instead of cinnamon.  After finishing up with the appropriate spice, and putting the rolls in the pan, I decided to close the kitchen and just be still.

As the rolls raised and baked, I had a chance to sit still and I asked God for a dose of peace as thick as the brown sugar I’d just piled on those rolls.  He obliged, and I sat there and soaked up the gift of his peace.  It gave me a chance to think about how nutty the pace of life can get.  It gave me a chance to think and pray about how we use our time.  I’m very grateful that I don’t get rattled easily but I began to do some thinking about how we handle stress.  Just for fun, I googled stress and one of the first thing I found was a list of the top 100 books on stress.  Top 100; I was floored…if there were 100 on top, how many more were under that 100? Next, I found 33 Scripture verses about peace.  There was the answer!  We were ingenuously created with an amazing immune system.  That system works round the clock fighting off germs, and other microscopic stuff to keep us in balance.  We have a stress relief system like that too.  That system goes into action when we tap into God’s peace.  In John’s gospel Jesus tells us his peace surpasses the worlds peace.  It is greater, deeper, more conquering than anything we can get from a book.  It comes with free, instant delivery; it always fits perfectly and it is precisely customized to fit all your worries, fears and anxieties.

There is a prescription for strengthening your peace system.  It’s a three step process; take a dose of scripture reading, follow it with some quiet stillness soaking up the wisdom of those words and repeat!  Nowhere in scripture does it tell us to go forth and be crazy.  The book of Genesis doesn’t say that on the eighth day  God created stress and worry.  Those things are not of God and anything that is not from him is something we can ask him to help us avoid and remove.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get all tangled up in it and forget to remind myself that it’s not his, but he will sure take it away if I ask him.  It will require sitting still and applying the three steps, but for me, it’s a much better thing to do than making cinnamon rolls with chili powder.

A Seed To Plant:  Write yourself a note right this minute scheduling the time today you will strengthen your peace system and do those simple three steps.  It will be the most important thing you do today!

Blessings on  your day!