Peace

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

These past few days in Jos we have had rumors of more violence. It resurfaced some of my fears and motivated me to be more ready in the midst of it.

Yet it was still a challenge to focus on the tasks demanding my attention. As I sat at my desk in my classroom, trying to focus on marking papers before my next lesson, I had to stop and pray; then this verse came to mind.

The passage begins with, "Rejoice in the Lord always...have no anxiety about anything..." and ends with the verse above. In the past it was the other verses that claimed my attention, but with the rumors flying the words of peace were given new meaning.

I remember hearing a story when I first arrived in Nigeria on the heels of a similar crisis that hit Kano in 1990. One of the missionaries gave the following account. After the crisis he met a Muslim that he had known for some time and asked him about the crisis. The man admitted that they had been on their way to burn down his compound when they had turned and saw smoke rising as if it was already burning. It wasn't until the fighting had stopped that they realized otherwise.

This story has prompted me to pray for angels with flaming swords to stand on our compound walls and provide similar protection. I am realizing more and more that God can deliver peace in ways that no human mind can understand.

As humans, we want to retaliate. Even people who have preached peace begin to say, "It is enough!" Some churches have been burned several times over the years. When destruction and loss of life has no rhyme or reason it becomes harder to preach peace and yet we have to remember that God's ways are not the world's ways.

These days I pray more and more for this kind of peace. I don't need to understand it, but I do claim it!

I saw another need for this kind of prayer yesterday when one student came in full of anger, annoyance, and frustration claiming he was going to quit school before he hurt someone! It is so easy to fall into traps of anger when we feel slighted or misunderstood. I pray for God's peace to enter the heart of my student too. May you too join me in my prayer for God's peace wherever and whenever you see the need for it.

Oh, soon I have my next women's fellowship meeting. We were only five last week, but again the bonds of connection were made stronger as we realized none of us had ever been in a church group like it. I had thought it was only me! I will share this message with them today and pray that it will also strengthen them and give them a sense of calm and hope in our city Jos.