Where Can I Turn For Peace?

In church, our ward has been asking members to choose one of their favorite hymns to sing as the intermediate hymn and bear testimony of the gospel truths found in the hymn. So a couple Sundays ago I was asked to choose a hymn and this is what I shared:

I love music and I have a lot of favorite hymns. So when I was asked to pick out a hymn to sing for today I chose to pick one that applied to some of the things I have been thinking about the last couple months and weeks.

I chose hymn #129 Where Can I Turn For Peace?

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

I know that we can all agree that life doesn't always go as we had planned and we all at times experience as this song says a wounded heart, anger, malice, and anguish. And to that I also add pain, sorrow, grief, guilt from sin, betrayal, disappointment, and loneliness.

So where do we turn? We can do our best to try and deal with it ourselves which is my favorite way of handling things or we can look to the world for answers and distraction. But none of that will fill that ache in our hearts and make us whole. The only way we can feel true peace through times of adversity is when we turn to Him who is The Prince of Peace.

This song reminds me of the scripture in John which says "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

I know that Jesus Christ experienced all things in the Garden of Gesthemane and so as it says in the 2nd verse, He is the ONLY one that can say "I understand exactly how you feel." And because of that when we find ourselves in our own Gesthemane moments of pain, guilt, disappointment, etc...He knows how to help us, how to give us the strength we need, and can bring peace to our hearts even in adversity.

The 3rd verse reminds me of the Greg Olsen picture of the child on the rocks in the river who is reaching up and grasping the hand of the Savior who is reaching His hand down to her. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and that His hand is always there reaching to us and that when we reach out to Him that He will always be there to help us.

And just as the last phrase of the song says--He is constant. We can always count on Him. He is always there. He is kind and His love for us is eternal. We can turn to Him and he will give us peace. I know these things are true!