Peace Be With You

Yesterday we went to the church my love grew up in for Sunday service. It was lovely, but somewhat difficult too. I know it was awkward for my love a bit as the prayer list included my love's name.

I thought going to church might be rather weird for me as I am still trying to figure out what I believe after distancing myself from the church of my childhood. One thing that I have always connected to, though, are hymns. I love hymns. I think they are beautiful. Yesterday, there were quite a few musical numbers as part of the service. One was sung by a soprano as a solo. I know I have heard the hymn before, but I particularly appreciated it yesterday. It is called "O Rest in the Lord" by Felix Mendelssohn. The words struck me the most, they said "O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him, and he shall give thee thy heart's desires. Commit thy way unto him, and trust in him...." (emphasis added by me). It's hard for me to trust sometimes, and hard for me to wait patiently, but I definitely have important desires in my heart that I want heard, so I guess I need to try a little harder with the trusting and waiting. Another hymn I appreciated was called "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" from the United Methodist Hymnal. The first verse says, "Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care; in thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy fold prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus! Thou has bought us, thine we are." I don't know, I guess I've just always liked the idea of Jesus as a shepherd, watching over us and caring for each one of us, and I can certainly use tender care right now.

The sermon itself was all about peace. The topic was "Peace Be With You," which I could use at the moment. As part of the "Children's Time" the pastor talked about different words for peace. One of the words he mentioned was "shalom" and he said something to the affect that shalom not only means peace, but also completeness. I wish I had written down exactly what he said, but it really touched me. I guess it reminded me that I believe everything happens for a reason, and that through a higher power I can feel peace and completeness and that maybe, just maybe, for some reason we're where we're supposed to be right now and everything will be alright.

Anyway, it was just kind of good to go to church. I wish for peace to be with each of you, and with me as well.