Although we moved back to the dust and chaos of our house, I’m here with the dog at my parents’ again today, enjoying the quiet and the heat. It is always good, and often imperative, to find an escape from the storms that life works up for us, but is there a way to be at peace, even in the midst of it?

I don’t know about you but my life is very much about when’s and once’s. ‘Once the building work is done’, ‘when things settle down’, ‘when I’m feeling better’, then I will be at peace.

But what happens when the circumstances improve and we are still uneasy? Is there a way to quiet our souls when the onces don’t happen? There will always be something else that comes to try us. This side of heaven, there will always be trouble.

There’s a story in the Bible when a storm rises up, the disciples are panicking and Jesus is asleep all the while! I was trying to have my breakfast this morning as the electrician worked and the dog barked. I tried to take long breaths but in the end I just fled. I remember a fellow patient saying to me ‘peace, peace, peace’. I wish I could sense that. I wish I could sleep in the boat as the storm rages. I knew someone who could fall asleep with his head against the loud speaker in a night club! Could you?

To be at peace is to feel safe. To feel safe is to trust that you are being looked after. I live trying to believe in the line; ‘the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.’ Even if you feel overwhelmed or just drowning in too much, hold onto the peace that Someone much stronger is holding onto you.