Dear sisters in Christ,
Margun Warem
I am Margun Warem and I live in Norway. The last twenty years I have been working full time as a teacher in High School. I am active in my local church, especially in women’s ministry, and I am also serving in the EBWU committee.
I am married, I have three children and three grandchildren who live close to us, praise the Lord! My mother is 91 years old. I am privileged that I am loved by God and my family.
But I am a busy woman. Last February I had been very busy at work. Then I was looking forward to a few weeks of peace and quiet, with only the ordinary work. I would have more time for my family, and I would have time to prepare for EBWU’s committee meeting and Women’s Conference in Armenia.
One day in late February the Head of my school sent me an email that I would have to be responsible for preparing the final oral exams in one of my subjects. It is a lot of work, and I had done this the previous year, so it wasn’t my “turn” this year. But several of my colleagues were on sick leave, one with a difficult pregnancy, one sick with cancer and one with big back surgery. So I was the only one who could do this now.
Suddenly there was chaos in my head. Why should this happen to me right now? I really needed time to prepare for Armenia. In this situation I also felt guilty since this seemed more important to me than the illnesses of my colleagues. I prayed for my colleagues.
So I went to a women’s meeting in my church. There God met me with the word from Psalm 116,7: Be at rest once more, O my soul. Oh my God, I thought. Why did you send these words to me now? Maybe I needed a reminder, especially in this situation, because many of us live in societies with a lot of stress. Several places in the Bible we read: Wait for the Lord – receive – rest – the Lord has done well against you.
When it is storming around us, are we sure that God is doing well against us? Can we hear God’s voice, or is it too noisy around us? I wanted and I needed to be silent, but I didn’t have the opportunity.
Satan fights to make us loose perspective. He wants us to be restless, and he wants the noise and restlessness to ruin our peace of mind. How can I, a small person, stand up against this pressure in my own life? How can I renew and refresh my gratitude that God in His mercy sent Jesus, that He in His mercy loves and forgives my sin? By doing like our forefathers did: Be at rest once more, O my soul.
Every day we can have this reminder. God sees us in our busy lives, and He says: Be at rest…
And we can add: For the Lord has been good to us.
At the time of the psalmist they also knew this dilemma. They were also busy people, it is not only today. But like the psalmist “drank” God’s peace, so can we do today.
Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, has a lot of meanings. Shalom doesn’t mean that we do not have problems. It means that in our troubles we can have God’s peace, we can call on the name of the Lord.
Please read Psalm 116, 1 – 9.
Margun Warem, Norway