Peace.
“A Message from the high and towering God, who lives in Eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I live in the high and holy places, but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed, and what I do is put new spirit in them, get them up and on their feet again. For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly, I’m not going to be angry forever. Otherwise, people would lose heart. These souls I created would tire out and give up. I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins. I struck him hard and turned away in anger, while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways. When I looked again and saw what he was doing, I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him, creating a new language of praise for the mourners. Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,’ says God - ‘and yes, I will heal them. But the wicked are storm-battered seas that can’t quiet down. The waves stir up garbage and mud. There’s no peace,’ God says, ‘for the wicked.’” -Isaiah 57:15-21
Until we see, we don’t see. We defend; we argue; we justify; we posture; we pretend; But we don’t see. We don’t see what we are running from. We don’t see what we are running to. We blame each other for any and every thing, ignoring the truth that the only real problem comes from within, our Spirit is bent and we have no peace.
I consider the times I have been angry, good and angry, as a parent, and it helps me understand two things: why God is angry and the bent spirit of humanity, me included.
God is not angry because He is not getting His way - for the reason that we throw fits when we don’t get our way - God is angry because the children He loves are choosing to be hurt instead of healed… they are choosing to trust a world that will chew them up and spit them out, instead of a God of perfect Love. And unless He jumps when we say ‘prove it’, we discard Him - when in reality a perfect God of love cannot be manipulated by the lesser or He wouldn’t be perfect Love… He must stay true to Love in order to bring us into Him instead of Him assimilating to us…. He won’t make us choose what is Good. He won’t make us choose Love over self - but He will come down to us - show us what Love is - and then give us a new Spirit - so that we can choose Him. There is no amount of fixing and ordering the outside circumstances that will change our hearts, to make us Good, to Love, truly Love each other without selfish ambition - God is done correcting us that way - Peace He gives to anyone who reaches the end of themself, the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed, and sees the bent and incredibly harmful/hurtful nature of humanity and chooses to trust God instead. To trust Love. He heals from the inside out. Peace.