Missing, But Not Alone

My brother has been missing for about three months now. I can't explain what other people feel when a family member goes missing, but I can tell you what happened to me. The minute I found out, my stomach felt like a clinched fist unable to release it's grip. My mind began to race wondering what happened, where he had gone, what was happening to him, and if he was safe or not. I found myself developing a ferocious desire to go out and find him. Friends and family pulled together to post flyers, spread the word on facebook, and even form a search party. We had people coming out of the woodworks offering to help in anyway they could. My heart has never been so moved and touched.

We actually did search for him, but had no luck. The feeling of searching for a missing person that you care very deeply for is unmistakably surreal. It's like living in a dream. Nothing seems real and everything is under intense inspection.

The drive home from our failed attempt was long and profound. Humanly speaking, I was completely helpless in this situation. My eyes never left the side of the road in a final effort to hopefully find him down an embankment. As we drove home, I had to come face to face with the reality that we may never find him. If he was alive and well and just didn't want to be found, I would never see my brother again in this life. If he was not alive and well, I would have to wait until I get to heaven to see him again. While the certainty of a heavenly reunion is reassuring, the pain of not having him around is certainly not something I want to face. I love my brother dearly and I miss him so much.

As I reflected on today's attribute of God I realized it has been the ONE thing that has brought me peace in this whole ordeal: God is omnipresent. Even though I don't have any connection with my brother right now, I have a deep connection with His Creator and His Creator is with him wherever he is. How do I know? Being omnipresent means that God is everywhere all at once. The same God who comforts my heart right now as I type this is also with my brother wherever He is.

Take a look at how scripture describes it:

Psalm 139:7-12

7 I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!  8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night -- 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you.

If my brother is in trouble, I can feel the assurance that he is not alone because my prayers for my brother are being heard by the God who is with him. Even if he is no longer alive, I know that he is in the presence of God and will never be alone again. The same God who is faithful to me and so many others is faithful to my brother who is out of my reach, but he's not out of God's reach.

It's at times like these when the fact that God is omnipresent really means so much. It is a comfort during this difficult and painful situation. The situations that are too big for us are NOT too big for God.

A song for my brother and anyone else out there who needs to know you're not alone:



A Little Peace of Heaven

Have you ever lost a loved one to death and felt that deep feeling of pain and loss that was almost unbearable? Then when you went to the viewing, you didn't think you'd have the strength to face all of those people during one of your darkest times. You breathe a simple, silent prayer, "God please help me" and you walk into to the funeral home. At the moment when you feel like you may run out of the room sobbing, you are immediately filled with a peace that you can't understand. It floods your entire being and you are able to face the people and the situation that you were previously dreading.

I have experienced it and it is mind-boggling. The peace doesn't make sense because you are in the middle of an emotionally challenging period of life. It's almost like the times when you have held your breath for a bit too long under water and you rush to the surface and gasp for that first breath of air. It feels so good to reinflate your lungs and relief immediately floods your veins.

Those moments of peace and relief came from somewhere. More accurately, they came from someONE. Today, my meditation was on another name of God, Jehovah-shalom, which means, "the God of peace."

Phillipians 4:6-7

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Often times when we think of having peace, we equate that to the end of our struggles. We have times of war and times of peace. We have times of need and times of abundance. Times of peace with no struggles is nice, but short-lived. It is rare that you will come across a person who isn't struggling with something at all at that time in their life.

God's peace is different. You don't have to wait until the problem is resolved in order to feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you have finished grieving before you can feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you are safely through the trials of life before you can feel His peace. God's peace is not limited to our situations.

That is what makes God's peace different. You can be right smack dab in the middle of one of the hardest things you've ever faced and feel peace.....peace IN THE MIDDLE of the storm. There is a strength that comes along with God's peace that helps you to get through the tough times.

So how can we get this peace (I mean, really....after a sales pitch like that, who wouldn't want it, right)?

The scripture above tells us that instead of worrying we should pray and tell God what we need. Then of course, we must thank God for what He has already done. He will supply the peace that you need and it will totally blow your mind. You won't be able to understand it.  Not only that, but He will then proceed to protect your heart and mind.

That is quite the package, if you ask me. God's peace is one of the many blessings that comes from living in Christ Jesus. I have been so thankful for those times when God gave me peace in the middle of my struggle. I have experienced the peace of God during seasons of loss, public harassment and humiliation, betrayal, and even times when I had to face fears. I'm so glad that I don't have to wait for peace to come after the bad stuff is over with. We all have an endless supply of peace ready and available at a moment's notice. And we know Jehovah-shalom, the ONE who gives the peace.