I heard a story of a little girl who sat scrunched up at the bottom of a trash can.  She looked up at the circle of blue sky and heard a voice say, “You’re nothing but a piece of trash.”

We hear words.  We read words.  We can choose to believe them.  We can choose not to believe them.  

At first glance the two words in the title of today’s blog appear to contradict each other.  But, I think  there are people who say they believe in God and His words, but they don’t live like they believe the words of God.  Take this Bible text for example; “I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is the peace the world cannot give.  So don’t be troubled or afraid.”  John 14:27.  

Jesus says He gives us peace and because He gives us peace we are not to be worried or afraid.  But, how many of us live a peaceful, unworried, unafraid life? 

Let me tell you a story to illustrate;  I had just put together a futon frame with my oldest daughter.  The next step to finish the project was to place the mattress on the frame.  It sounds so easy, but it wasn’t.  This wasn’t one of those thin cheap mattress’s,  this was the thick heavy mattress. I gripped one end as tightly as I could while my  daughter held onto the other end.   We counted one, two, three and tried to coordinate tossing the mattress onto the frame.  It didn’t work out so well, we were  both laughing so hard at our puny efforts there was no way we were going to get that thing onto the frame. My skinny 15 year old son walked in the bedroom and said, “Move out of the way and I’ll put it on there.”  I stopped laughing long enough to offer him our help.  I would hold onto my end, my daughter would manage her end and he could help in the middle.    He waved his arms and dismissed us.  “No, just move out of the way and I’ll get it.”   We stepped away from the mattress, but I kept talking even as he moved forward to get the job done.  “Now don’t hurt yourself, we can help you if you need us…”  He ignored my ramblings and bent over, folded the mattress  in half and popped it onto the frame.  Easy peasy.  I was amazed at the strength in his skinny arms and body. He did not need our help.

 Let me say that again– He did not need our help.

Let’s go back to sitting at the bottom of the trash can. When life has put you at the bottom of the trash can and God is standing there offering to help you out, to give you peace, do you look at Him and think He can’t possibly help you?  Do you believe the words the world tells you about being ‘just a piece of trash’?  I think too many times we see God  standing there and we aren’t sure He has enough power to help us out of our situation.  But when God offers to help us we need to be quiet, quit offering to help Him, and quit giving Him advice.  If we just move ourselves out of the way He is perfectly capable of lifting us out of the trash can.  All we need to do is move ourselves…move our pride that says we can do it all ourselves…out of the way.  Then God will give us the gift of peace He has promised us and throw our fear and worry into the trashcan.