Peace like a River

If you are on my mailing list, you’ve probably seen this a time or two. I commonly use this at the end of my emails. I think it is so funny how many people don’t get this. My friends make jokes about me being a tree hugger (whats so bad about that?!?)… and I have been asked several times what it means. In my mind, this is a no brainer - nothing brings peace to me like a river (or any moving body of water for that matter - well, besides bodies of water with oil in them but that’s another blog post altogether). Anywho, this is just my way of saying “peace to you, like water brings to me”. Truthfully, though, the story gets deeper than that…

I attended a church camp in the hills of KY from 7th-12th grade for one week in the summer. This camp taught me soooo much about life and I made so many great friends and memories but it was the songs I remember most. We learned some of the most annoying songs one could know and some of the most beautiful. We would sing them around a camp fire at night. One of my favorites was the up-beat “Peace like a River” song. So, this one time, at church camp, I learned a song and the words are…

I’ve got peace like a river
I’ve got love like an ocean
I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul

To sing it correctly though, you have stand and while singing the first verse, make a river with your hands… for the second verse, make an ocean with your arms and for the last verse (as well as my favorite part) you have to pose like a fountain. Ah, yes, envision 100+ kids doing this fountain pose. We were encouraged to be creative with our fountains. Of course, MY fountain was always big and included both arms doing something one could probably really never make sense of.

So, there it is, the story of my “peace like a river”. Maybe one day I’ll post a picture of my fountain. :)