BETHANY BELUE|GUEST
It is 6:00 p.m. on a Friday night. The kitchen is a mess with dirty dishes scattered on the counter and crumbs blanketing the floor from a toddler who thinks throwing his food is funny. My hair is tied in a messy ponytail, and spit-up stains dot my shirt. My 19-month-old is running wild awaiting bath time while my two-month-old cries, ready for her last little nap before the end of the day. As I look around at this scene, with toys scattered everywhere and the sounds of young children filling the home, I can’t help but laugh. Although I’m living in my very own circus and a far cry from how I used to spend a Friday night, I laugh at how different my life is now and how peaceful my heart is in this moment of chaos.
For all of us, the last few years have felt heavy, unnerving, and probably at times like living in a dramatic movie. Between a pandemic which has completely changed so much about our world, political divisions, racial unrest, and continual brokenness that fills our lives, we can all say we have faced tribulation. While all of these things have impacted my life personally, the biggest focus in my world has been the birth of two children in less than two years after years of struggling with infertility. These babies were prayed for, longed for, and still very much a surprise to us. In a short period of time, while the world around us changed dramatically, everything in our personal lives changed as we welcomed these two little lives into our family. As I navigate this new season that feels like I’m barely keeping my head above water, I surprisingly told a friend recently, “I think I may be more at peace now in this season than I’ve ever felt before.”
On the surface, it doesn’t make sense. I’m raising babies in the middle of a pandemic. The world feels like it’s more divided than ever. My hands are full all the time. Yet the peace I experience is not hollow. It’s in the deepest part of my soul as I rest in the One who is carrying me through all of it: the God who carried me through the tribulation during our years of infertility, the God who has carried His children from the beginning of time.
I love the words of Jesus as He sits with His disciples at the Last Supper.
“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
He knows this world will be hard for them. He knows there will be suffering, persecution, and brokenness that will never go away in this world. He knows, too, that peace is possible—peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7)—peace only found in Jesus.
They didn’t know what was to come, but He did. He knew that they may feel buried by the weight of all it. To that, He boldly said, “Take heart for I have overcome the world.” He overcame the world by hanging on the cross to die, by taking the sin of the world on His shoulders, by and defeating death when He was resurrected from the tomb and ascended into heaven to be next to His Father. He didn’t leave us without hope but promised to be with us through His Holy Spirit. He is waiting even now in heaven for His children to be with Him for eternity.
So, as we live in this broken world, we can look to God who from the very beginning had a plan to offer peace in Himself. Life around us may feel chaotic. It may feel anything but peaceful. Yet when we fall into the arms of Jesus and allow Him to rule in our hearts, we can take a breath and rest in His perfect peace.
The struggles I experience in my day-to-day life are very different now than just three years ago. However, the peace I longed for then and long for today is found in the same way and in the same person. None of us knows what tomorrow will bring. I often look at my two small children, my messy home, the calling of a pastor’s wife, and the demands of everyday life and am tempted to feel completely overwhelmed. In those moments, I turn to the comforting words of Isaiah: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isa. 26:3-4).
In Jesus there is peace. In Him I can trust. Just like He promised His disciples at the Last Supper, we can take heart because He has overcome the world. There is nothing you may face, however big or small, that has not first been faced by our Savior.
As I remind my little boy every night before laying him in his crib, “The Lord is with you, He is for you, and he will never leave you or forsake you.”
Take heart friends and live in the perfect peace our Heavenly Father longs to give you.
About the Author:
Bethany Belue
Bethany Belue is on staff with CDM as the Communications Coordinator for children’s ministry. Before marriage and babies, she spent her single years in New York City and Birmingham, Al serving as the Children’s Ministry Director at Redeemer and Oak Mountain PCA. Bethany now resides on the Gulf Coast in Mobile Al with her Pastor husband Dustin and her 2 young children Patterson and Neely McMillan. When not holding babies she enjoys serving on the women’s ministry team at church, discipling younger women and children, and pushing her double stroller all over the neighborhood!