Nobody does murder mysteries like the British. All of those old manor houses and quaint cottages must be chock-full of people who have more dark motives and secrets than the queen has pocketbooks.
If Brits actually kill each other off at the rate one might assume based on their TV shows, it explains why they haven’t overpopulated their island after all these centuries.
I subscribe to two British video streaming services and the vast majority of shows and movies available on them are murder mysteries. I confess I do enjoy them, which my husband finds a bit strange and unsettling, even though I’ve repeatedly explained it’s the mystery, not the murder, that appeals to me.
But at least we now understand that my strange affinity for British mysteries is a genetic thing. Turns out I have deep roots in the U.K. I got a good deal on one of those ancestry sites and after having my DNA analyzed, I learned that my ancestral origins are 99 percent British, Scottish and Irish.
That also explains my occasional, intense craving for haggis and kidney pies. (I’m absolutely, positively kidding.)
One thing I didn’t inherit from my British kin is their obsessive love for tea and their belief in its restorative powers. Stumble upon a dead body in your living room? Witness a murder at the village fete? Suit of armor nearly fall on you as you walked down the hall of your manor house? Discover cyanide in that marmalade you almost spread on your scone?
Steady on, old bean, what you need is a cup of tea. If one’s British nerves are jangled to the brink of hysteria, it seems the remedy of choice is always a cup of tea, or a “cuppa,” as they say.
I guess it’s nice that something as legal, inexpensive and readily available as tea can work such emotional wonders for some people, but it’s certainly never done that for me. Something else has, though.
My cure of choice for jangled nerves is well explained in one of my go-to verses in the Bible—Isaiah 26:3: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
In fact, I refer to that passage as my “medical/dental verse” because silently meditating on it has kept me calm through all kinds of stressful procedures and surgeries. I don’t need tea when my nerves are all torn up; I need the peace of God.
Turning my thoughts to Him and remembering that my life is in the hands of an all-powerful God who loves me and is thoroughly good, always present, and attentive to every detail of my life—that’s what brings me back from the precipice of panic or despair.
When Jesus was preparing His disciples for His impending death on a cross, He certainly didn’t say to them, “Here, have a spot of tea and you’ll be fine.”
No, He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. ” (John 14:27)
So, how do we do that? Well, earlier in that conversation, Jesus gave them, and us, the key to unlocking His peace: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” (John 14:1)
Believe in God. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not always. Effective? Absolutely. And with all due respect to my British ancestors, so much more powerful than a cup of tea.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10