Peace

Credit: Free images from acobox.com

John 14:27 - (ESV): "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."


My mind races with the consequences of my actions every moment of my waking life it seems.  For example, 2 months ago, I hit a car in a parking lot.  At the time, I was not sure I hit it.  I looked, it did not appear damaged, so i parked 10 feet from the car, and waited for my wife to do her business within the building I was parked in front of.  She came out and told me to drive next door to pick her up.  On the way out, just to make sure I did not hit the car, and if I did hit it, I did not damage it, I looked again.  Seemed whole to me.  I pulled out of the parking lot, turned left, saw why wife, pulled to the side of the road, picked her up, and spent the next 45 minutes going from business to business for her within the same town.


Then, as I was entering the Geo Tag in facebook, for the business she was then inside of, a local police officer scared the tar out of me by sticking his head in the van's window.  You gotta know that this was a 15 passenger van, and was very tall, so his head actually was right in front of mine, face to face.  He then told me we had a problem.  Since I was still thinking about the near miss I had in the parking lot, when he told me that I had hit the car, I said "Oh Crap  --  I did hit it?"

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

He flipped out. Reminded me of a DI. Screaming, pointing, being rude, calling my wife a Girl, refusing to accept the registration which in CT in on the windshield, refusing the insurance card at first, never letting me tell him what happened.  He just went nuts.


Since then I have been told that he was probably not used to people telling him the truth, so he just assumed I had hit the car and left the area.  He was told that I had hit the car, sped away, picking my wife up on the side of the road, and beat feet to get out of the area.  No one told him I had been there for 10 minutes after I evidently did hit the car.  It did not occur to him that I was still within a mile of the store where this happened 45 minutes later. 


Rather, in his rush to PROVE that I was an idiot, he wrote on the report that there was food wrapping trash from the store I was parked at when all this happened.  There was trash on the floor, for sure, but not from there.  We don't eat there.  It makes me ill.  In addition, my wife and spent 10 minutes talking to friends inside the store, and they have volunteered to tell the law that we did not buy any food.  Further, I have the Geo Tags which are time stamped to show how long I was there.  No one fled the scene.  10 minutes I was parked within 10 feet, and there were only 2 or 3 cars in the parking lot.


He never asked.  He just assumed I was a bad guy.  After I got the citation, he finally asked why I left.  I said, "If I remember -- "  He yelled, "What do you mean, if I remember, it only happened 30 minutes ago?"  I apologized, and said, "I have a brain injury, and I ...." He yelled, "I don't care."  I lost it.  I walked into his personal space, put my face inches from his face, and said, "Excuse me?"  The reason I told him I have a brain injury is because I have VERY poor short term memory.  I only remember emotional things, and those poorly.  This one I wrote down.


Why is this important?  Because I failed the Lord.  I know I did not do much wrong.  I should have called the police, even though I could find no damage, or was even sure I hit that car.  I should have looked more carefully.  I did not, I am not at peace because of it.  I am afraid of the court date too. Why?  Because the officers report was horrible.  His vision of what happened is all one sided.  Makes me look very bad.  I could have prevented that, if I just remembered who this life is all about.  I abandoned the peace of the Lord and tried to do it on my own.


The problem only escalates for TBI patients though.  Now, since I can not really remember what happened, only what I tell people happened, and fear rules my day, I see myself in prison for 15 years.  Not possible, but that is the nature of my illness.


So why don't I have the peace of the Lord?  Am I not forgiven?


Perhaps my conservative friends are right, and the Lord is punishing me for my loss of control.  You know, Forgiven but still responsible.  I don't buy that, but that is running around in my head.


Perhaps God just does not care about me right now.  I don't buy that either, but obviously I have thought it.

But then I ran across this verse.  "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

Jesus, as he was dying, left us a gift far bigger than I at first understood.


He left us Peace, and not just any Peace, His Peace.  


Wow.


Jesus did not leave it there, just in case I misunderstood.  He said, Not the world's peace - you know, the forgive but don't forget type, but His peace.


And just to make sure I did not miss the point, he tells me to not be troubled or afraid.


So why was I troubled and afraid when I started writing this?  
Because I allowed the world's peace to be my guide.


Why am I sitting up straighter and breathing slowly right now, without the fear or trouble?
Because I accepted this gift too.  Right here.  Right now.


Read the Bible, listen to Holy Spirit within you, and be at peace.  It is your new birth right.  Own it.