Peace

Have you ever noticed that some people cannot live without a problem? If they don't have a problem they will create one? Our society and our tendency to gossip and our tendency to take up other people's hurts can keep us in a constant state of turmoil. It becomes such a habit that you end up never knowing any peace, so that if there is no problem handy you will create one.
I would think that many TV shows make this tendency worse. People who have to have a constant problem love the TV shows that emphasize a bunch of people having a big problem and go about solving it in ineffective ways.
So what is the solution? Know God. God doesn't want us to go around living in a constant state of turmoil. Doing so says that we want to be in charge instead of Him.
Here is the thinking (or lack of it): "God, you aren't big enough to handle my problem. I have to continually carry it around and get everyone I can involved in it. Poor me! You just don't understand this and I can't trust You to handle it." Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Yet that is what we do. Why can't we understand that a God that could create the heavens and the earth and me and then give me a means to peace through Jesus Christ can do ANYTHING. He does understand our problems and He can carry them IF we let Him. Our problem is weak faith and failing to think through Who God IS. We don't allow God to be God.
God can do anything. That is why we can pray. Anything is possible with God because that is part of the definition of God. That is who God claims to be. We have not because we ask not and we also have not because when we do ask we ask selfishly. God is God. He knows what He is doing but we can move His hands with a prayer of faith. We are told to "pray in the spirit". You can't go wrong praying in the spirit and in doing so you will say things from the spirit that you would not have thought of. The problem is to get beyond my selfish praying to "praying in the spirit." God overrules our selfish praying and speaks to us through "praying in the spirit." Lord, teach me to pray in the spirit.
If you stop and ask yourself this about your problem: In three weeks, will this still be a problem? You may just find that in a time perspective of three weeks it will no longer exist. If it does persist ask yourself what you did to cause it and take ownership of it. If it is the second or third time you have seen this problem you need to ask the Lord what He is trying to teach you. God will recycle your lessons until you learn what He is trying to teach you. He will not give you more than you can handle and you may receive some temporary relief from it but it will return until you learn what He wants you to know and do.
We are warned about gossip in The Word. Proverbs says that when gossip goes away so does strife. Refuse to be embroiled in other people's supposed hurts. It is one thing to empathize with someone and something completely different to take up their banner and go try to solve "their" problems by including a whole bunch of people that have nothing to do with the solution. Go only to the person that can help solve the problem.
Many times we jump to conclusions because we haven't heard the other side of the story. When the other side of the story is told we usually find understanding. I have had many students sit in my office and tell me how they were so badly mistreated by a teacher. When I have taken the child to the teacher and asked the teacher what happened I got the other side of the story and usually ended up with a student hanging his/her head because the truth came out. To listen to the student only would have been a mistake. I had a boss that would listen to others and not check out their stories. He would believe the person and then jump on the other person who usually never had a clue. He would start things rolling based on rumor and untruth. You can't trust someone who does that and eventually he had everyone mad at him because sooner or later everyone got on his bad side. I usually figured that the truth would win out. Truth stands the test of time and God will bring out the truth eventually. God did that many times where I was concerned.
Do you lie to God? Do you say to Him that you have no sin? What would His side of the story sound like? Do you have peace? Can you live without having to have a problem? Check yourself out and start pursuing the path of peace that God promises. There is a peace that passes understanding. Search for it.