Perfect peace

"In high school I was far from God. I had come to faith as a 12 year old, but I lacked any spiritual support. So after a couple of years I began to want to join the 'crowd', and turned my back on what I had found. However, by the time I entered college at UK, I began to realize how deeply empty my life had really become. (I had a good job in a well-known band, my dating life was fine, I had been a member of one of the social clubs in high school, but there was still a huge hole inside.)

I was definitely in a seeking mode. At that time there was a book that had become a best seller. Today I wouldn't say it was a very deep book, but it had some of the basics that I needed. It was Norman Vincent Peale's, "The Power of Positive Thinking." There I began to see how faith and prayer were a reality. I began also to notice differences in what was going on in and around me when I prayed. Gradually, God was drawing me back to himself.

The rest, for me, is history. A young pastor drew me ,(and our band leader), into his small congregation. (It is now Centenary UMC with over 2000 members.) From there came a call, Asbury College, meeting and marrying Barb etc.)

What drew me back to this story was seeing the verse again that was a part of one of Peale's booklets. It's the verse:"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you..."(Isaiah 26:3) The promises of Scripture have great power. In good and bad times, when we keep our minds fixed on him, his power, and his love, peace naturally follows. Keeping our minds there will take work, but it is more than worth it.