Loose Wheels, Half a Cloak, and God's Peace

An Instrument of God's Peace:

There is no use asking, "Why?" Sometimes in this world the wheels just come off. It's one of the things that Job's "friend," Eliphaz observed, "People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire" (Job 5:7, NLT). People mistakenly think that little organizations don't have much trouble. I confess my lack of objectivity, but I think that per capita, little outfits have more trouble than the bigger ones. Often we have to do the same stuff as the big guys, but, by definition, we have to do it with fewer workers. At Pacific Islands University, the school where I am privileged to serve, often one person does what a whole department at a bigger institution does. Sometimes it's even worse. One person has several functions. I'm not complaining. I'm just giving the set-up for the rest of this post. This morning was one of those times:  I happened to be a place so that I could serve as a spare tire, so with minimal planning we proceeded with a prayer chapel. Early in the program I asked the question, "Why do we have chapel?" I was hoping that someone would give an answer that would be a seq-way to this thought, "It is a place where we take a few moments of refuge from our loose-wheel world to meet with God Who is in control and has promised to be with us on this tumultuous globe. My expectations and hopes were way too low. One of our teachers, a Bible Translator said, "Let me give a linguistic answer." Then he proceeded to give a version of this legend "While Martin [of Tours] was a soldier in the Roman army . . . he experienced a vision. . . . One day as he was approaching the gates of the city of Amiens, he met a scantily clad beggar. He impulsively cut his military cloak in half to share with the man. That night, Martin dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given away. He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Martin . . . clothed me with this robe." The half-robe became an object of veneration. Skipping over a couple of steps in the linguistic evolution, "People called the small temporary buildings erected to house the relic "capella", the word for a little cloak. Eventually, such small churches lost their association with the cloak, and all small churches began to be referred to as 'chapels'" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_of_Tours). My friend had no idea I was going to ask that question. I had no idea he would refer to this legend. But, as surely as the story portrays the human instrumentality of God reaching down into this breaking-down world to meet the need of troubled people, God reached down into our chapel and clothed us with His peace. Just as in the ancient tale, he used humans as the instruments to accomplish His work. I can look at my computer screen and the lists on my desk,not to mention the troubles that come to the door, and see the sparks flying upward. Lord, help me to look beyond and see your hand of peace. To quote Francis of Assisi, "Lord make me an Instrument of your peace." It's Something To Think About.