DON'T SWEAT THE small STUFF

'Why are they looking at me?' 'Did I say something stupid?' 'Why do they pick on me?' 'It's not funny.' 'Is it my fault?'
We cannot handle our worries without Him.
I was in class and I couldn't believe all the gossiping that happens. Girls and guys, my peers, my siblings through Christ, blaming and trying to bring each other down to raise themselves up. I was frustrated with them and with myself. I know that I used to do that also. I used to care so much about what others did and I'd judge them. I felt like I was doing it now, being in that classroom, I was judging them because they were judging others...that doesn't make it any better. I was in the hallways after and declared, I want more of your peace Father. Calm my heart. And right there in front of everyone who was passing by, I raised my arms and received His peace. This great comfort and confidence that He wants us to have in Him.
For us to hand over all our worries.
'I give them to you God, I give them to YOU Oh, Great Being,'
That afternoon I was reflecting on what confidence is to me. How to be confident, what the word even means. The dictionary says,

Belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance.

As I was reading this I thought, "I NEVER want to be confident again. Or claim to be anyway!" But I do have confidence in the gifts God has blessed me with, I want confidence in my Lord alone! He will provide us with everything we need in this day. He is so faithful to us!
I know that He is there for me, because the Word tells me this. And sometimes I think about forgetting all this 'peace non-sense', and gossipping and hurting others. It can be fun and it is definitely easy to do. But then I think of  Matthew 26:52, which is Jesus saying to Peter, 'For all who draw a sword will die by the sword.' So what I got from that is, that even though it is easy to start hurting someone, whether it be of words or of a sword, it will lead to your downfall. Because God is a god of scandalous grace. Basically, Jesus is a King who loved evildoers so much that He died for them, teaching us that there is something worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for. Jesus dared me today, to come and follow Him, to take up my cross, to lose my life to find it, with the promises that life is more powerful then death and that it is more courageous to love our enemies then to kill them.
God is Peace and we are His Dekanawideh (peacemakers). 

'We are learning the Way of the Prince of Peace, and we are teaching this Way.'

---Shane Clayborne