Peace Like a River

Isaiah 48:18

"If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea."

I recently had to counsel a young man who recently had a divorce and have been struggling to put the pieces back together. The divorce was a complete surprise to him, and all else didn't seem to matter. His job suffered to almost being fired. He had internalized the entire situation and crawled deep into a deep whole in hopes that it never happened. He removed himself from the world, including his friends. He had considered suicide in hopes to quite any remaining thoughts.

Oh how tragic for a young man who had many talents, and had quite a bit of talent to offer to the world. He shared how he felt as if he was unworthy and had nothing to share. He felt as if everything he did always resulted in failure. This reminded me of how many of us react when faced with difficulties, and especially depression.

On the most part, when we are depressed we would replay the troubles in our minds over and over again. As we replay the problems in our minds our depression and/or frustration just grows. we wished it never happened, or we blame ourselves for the mistakes we had done. "If we had just done it differently," we will tell ourselves or, "we just do not deserve it." While relive the past, our stress simply just builds. This is like a dam in a river. As we replay the issues, it is like a dam is being built. As we internalize the issues, there are very little areas to release the problems. The waters have no place to run beyond the dam when there are no areas to release. The stress will only increase as more water is stopped. Eventually, the dam will break or the water will overflow only to leave devastation.

A natural river may have may have many twists, turns, and some turbulence, but it is always moving forward. It never turns back, nor does it retrace its steps. It may create new paths when it becomes necessary, but it is always moving forward. As I heard someone say, "you can never stand in the same river twice." This is the peace we find with the river. We need to continue moving forward, and not dwell in the past. We must learn from our past, but it is in the past. Following Him will also lessen our need to look back. We need to move forward and strive to reach our goals, especially with following the path back home to God.