Peace Out!

There are a lot of great things in my life that I take for granted.

One of the greatest and most indispensable is peace. It's something that God placed in the original Dennis recipe. It's not a given for everyone. God reminds me of that daily as I walk through my life. The Bible lists peace among the Fruits of the Spirit, but it's just as much of a Gift.

Along with the internal peace, I take my external peace for granted. Right now, DC is in the middle of one of several recent thunder storms that would do the Midwest proud: pelting rains, blinding blazes of lightning, and crashes of thunder that set off car alarms. All we're missing is the killer hail. I love storms like these for their awesome power and beauty, although they can be destructive and even deadly. But they're God-made.

When I hear the crashes and see the blazes and feel the pelting, I know that it's just the weather. I know it's just God taking pictures, watering the lawn, rearranging furniture in heaven. Also, not a given for everyone. Lots of people are living or maybe just surviving in a war-torn country. So they experience the exact same sensations all the time, except the crashes are bombs, the blazes are explosions and the pelting is gunfire.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not heralding the evils of war as an institution or any specific war. Even though my brother will soon begin a one year tour in Iraq and a good friend of mine will be heading over there for work, which is probably part of the reason God brought all of this up. All I'm saying is that I can't take any peace for granted. All of the peace in my life - in and outside of my head - is a gift from God and I must be grateful.