seven times hot

Too soon, too early, Matt was packing his bags to head to the airport, the big girls were eating breakfast and picking clothes with all the attitude of tween-agers for Music and Drama Camp (like any tween needs a camp for drama), and Ben was running around in his underwear shooting everyone continually with the nerf gun John Stewart gave him for his birthday.

I have been feeling the heaviness of Haiti in my eyes and heart and stomach, and by this crazy morning, I was already at the end of myself, and desperately wanted to go somewhere quiet with sunshine and coffee and be alone.  To sit and be still and be weary. To pray with all my tears and let Him meet me.

That would have been blissful.  One day in heaven I'm gonna have that.

But He DID meet me.  

As we all sat with foam bullets whizzing past our heads, I read from our Armor of God kid's devotional we've been going through this month.  Today we talked about putting on the shoes of peace, and how that means that wherever we go, 1) we are at peace that He is with us and 2) we stand on the reality that He is already victorious. 

And then author Tony Evans took a turn I wasn't expecting, and I had my tears without a quiet place.

He spoke of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, faced with the choice to bow and worship their king as god, or be thrown into a furnace. 

We do not need to defend ourselves, they say in Daniel 3, If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, our God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from you. But even if he doesn't, we will not serve your gods or worship the idol you have set up.

He went on to point out that God didn't hide the boys from this situation, nor keep them from the fire. On the contrary, they were thrown directly into the most dangerous place, and God allowed evil Nebuchadnezzar to even heat the furnace seven times hotter!

And so God met them in the fire. 

When the king looked down on the three, he saw four.

God didn't change their world. But he joined them. And that changed EVERYTHING.

As I shudder to think these days about the manhunts, the murders, the violence, the fear, the uncertainty, the trauma, the injustice, the abuse, the pain, the struggles in Haiti, MORE struggles, still MORE struggles...it's easy to get frustrated that God hasn't changed Haiti's headlines.

It might even be easy to give up.

We've been praying for change in Haiti since...since the moment I MET her, and many for many years before that. And it has just gotten worse and worse and worse. 

Seven times hot, no doubt.

It's easy to get angry that many beautiful, hard-working, honest, giving, peaceful, God-following people are desperate to simply eat and send their kids to school, and it continues to be b-e-y-o-n-d reach. Impossible. Too much to ask.

But man alive.

He is IN THERE. Anyone you have ever met will tell you that they saw Jesus, clear clear, when they were in Haiti.

Haiti took it's beginning with violence and darkness and chaos, and dedicated its ties to demons and Satan. Evil has changed Haiti...and the hearts of men have brought it here.  

And it's true...God hasn't forced it free.

But God has joined Haiti in the fire, and as tears slid down my cheeks this morning, I was renewed with His hope. 

When I looked again into the fire this morning, I saw not our precious brothers and sisters alone, but the Lord walking with them.  

Who still wept for Shad, Meshach and Benny when they saw the God of Angels Armies was walking among them?

When God changes the circumstances, that's a good reason to praise Him. And when He doesn't, if you are wearing the shoes of peace, God will be right there beside you in that firey furnace, and He will give you the peace you need to overcome your problems. And that's a good reason to praise Him, too.

Every attack on peace in your life needs to be taken straight back to the spiritual realm and replaced with what God has to say on the matter. You will wear shoes of peace, you will walk without becoming weary, and in those shoes you will find the calming power of God's perfect peace.

May we not be angry with the Lord for the fire, when He gets down in the ashes with us. May we not be despairing, nor neglect to pray, for our brothers and sisters around the world who keep getting the heat turned up.

May we be kept in perfect peace with minds that are steadfast, loyal and true, because we trust. in. Him.  Isaiah 26:3.