Peace in Chaos

I love taking the boat shuttle into town daily - away from the hustle and bustle, no incessant honks and crazy motorcyclist find new ways to kill themselves.

It's a 20 minute peaceful quiet ride, which I can find time to do my QT (when I wake up bit late), eat my apple (breakfast), read some, prayer or just reflect.

I did some reflecting recently - about life here in Vietnam.
God opened the doors some months back, for the family to relocate here - and we are exceedingly thankful. God is really really good - my kids are fully settled in school, family settled in the country.
My kids got back a "progress" report, and I was just blown away at the detailedness of the report, and just how positive it read. Least to say, it is a completely refreshing change from the school reports from Singapore (won't say too much...).

I am extremely thankful my wife found her Quiet Time grove - she is God's gift to me, someone whom I treasure and love dearly.
We have started to get to know a few families, and I can already see good fellowship/friends ahead.
I've also started attending Men's Fellowship (see previous article), and look forward to it, to closer fellowship with fellow men in the faith.

And yet, all that could change within days or weeks - we live in an uncertain world.
In addition to the chaotic past few months (work wise) - I can honestly say I am really really contented right now.

Our version of peace is often defined by the lack of chaos.
It is peaceful, when the kids are asleep.
It is peaceful, when I'm chilling by the beachside, reading a book and lazying away.

Is it true peace, when it can be so fragile, easily shattered by our circumstance and what happens around us?
Can we actually have peace, in spite chaos around us?

One song which completely blows me away is "It is well with my soul" - lyrics below.
The background to the song is tremendous. Spafford lost his 4 children in a ship accident, wife survived. Eventually, he wrote this hymn in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the death of his child­ren.
How is it ever possible to have peace, after losing 4 children?
How is it ever possible to write that it is well with my soul after such a tragedy?

And yet, when we realize that God is in complete control of our lives, the good and bad, and that no matter what happens, how bad it is, Christ has already died for us, and redeemed us from the grasp of the evil one into the bosom of our heavenly Father.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

Men's Fellowship

I stepped into a "church" building some 33 years ago.

I became a Christian some 16 years ago (yes, took me some time to get my act together) - and in all these years, I've had cell/bible-study/home groups grouped together based on faculty (Commerce Christians in Uni), type of student (Fellowship of Overseas Christians University Students), families (at Adam Road Presbyterian Centre), work (at my previous work place).

Strangely, I've never had a group based on... gender.
Sure, Ladies Fellowship was quite common (not that I was ever part of one), but Men's Fellowship? Anyway, I attended my first today!

The plan was to meet at 7am, once a week (and strangely, I found myself waking up almost every hour last night, checking the time, so that I would not oversleep).
A bunch of grown men, sitting around a table, with a cuppa - and you know what? I was really really encouraged.

A guy who shared that he was a fairly new Christian, and that he struggled from things going too well (erh.. sorta) - and I was blown away! After struggling with prosperity gospel previously, that was just refreshingly.... mature. It normally takes a good evangelical matured Christian to realize that things going all too smoothly, isn't always a good thing.

The dynamics are different from the family based (scripture based, but grouped by families I mean) bible study. There are struggles that us MEN have to deal with, and it's just encouraging that we can support each other in this way - what a revelation!

And that's why they have Ladies Fellowship all these years- we Men have been missing out!

Hebrews 10:25

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.