Aren’t those amazing verses from Ezekiel 38?  Uplifting and edifying!  Especially verse 11.  The context is God’s people facing difficult times.  They are called  ‘…a peaceful and unsuspecting people’.  My translation (ESV) calls them ‘a quiet people’.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little peace and quiet?

I’d like to be one of the quiet people. Wouldn’t you?   To nap uninterrupted.  To read a book from cover to cover.  To do…whatever you want!   Left alone for awhile.  But life has a way of happening that can’t stand a little peace and quiet for very long.

When my wife and I were in England for two months, we rented a 15th century Manor House.  Had a lovely time, indeed.  Wanting to be ‘quiet people’, we followed all the rules of the road.  Including paying for parking wherever we went, even had to pay to park at some supermarkets.  An expense that was a surprise to us, but one which we obeyed without fail.

The day after we arrived home a letter arrived for us from England.  From the Council of the City of Leeds.  A parking ticket to the tune of $135.  We want to be ‘quiet people’, ‘peaceful people’, but the storm clouds were gathering across the sea.  I looked at my wife, she looked at me.  We had never been to Leeds.  We knew that… but how could we prove it?  It was the car we had rented, the license plate tattled that it had been in Leeds.  What gives?  And now our credit card has been charged for the $135 by our rental company as return payment for what they owed on our ticket.  I wanted to scream that we had never been to Leeds.   Quiet and peace… flew out the window.  This is not right.  Never in Leeds, but now we’re lead into trouble.

Until I read the parking ticket.  The infraction happened on August 15th, and it said so in two places.  August 15th?  We didn’t fly to England until Sept 1st.   I believe in miracles but this is ridiculous.  And it took two full months to get this corrected…and our money back!

As much as we’d like to be ‘quiet people’, sometimes you just have to go to battle.  Don’t ask the question ‘why’?  You’ll only make it worse, and probably not get a satisfying answer, anyway. Usually the Lord wants us to trust Him.   To put our hands in His.  To let Him carry us when we can barely walk on our own.  To let Him give us His peace–the peace  that passes understanding.  Not as the world gives…

Prayer:  Lord, we pray for peace and quiet in our lives.   To rest in You.  We pray for that this new year…to find it in You in whom we can always place our trust.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.