Struggling Well With Life

Growing up outside of Atlantic City, NJ where the Miss America Pageant was held I heard my fair share of contenders for that title wish for “world peace”. They were just too easy, and too much fun to mock! I am not convinced those women knew much about the world outside their own reality. And yet this year that is the sentiment that has lingered beneath the surface for me. Forget world peace, I am wishing for it to be local, a little closer to home. I wish for every child in our church to grow up in a home where they know how deeply they are loved, by parents who love them and each other. I wish for marriages to find the way through. I wish for men to be men, and provide for their families in ways that far surpass the physical needs. I wish for the statistics to be different for us as believers. My wish seems as far fetched as those beauty contestants. I am mad, mad that so many are falling around us. It is hard to follow Christ, to be obedient, to remain in the tension of the relationships we have committed to. Every day is a battle - to not only do right, but be right - be right with God, and others. I haven’t mastered it, but it steams me to witness the devastation of lives in the wake of someone who gives up and goes after “what makes me happy”. I wish that the peace of Christ would rule, like never before, in the hearts and homes of this community of believers.