Peace.....
Inner Peace?
World Peace?
Give Peace a Chance?
What did God want me to discover today about Peace?
Of all days, I have not been at peace with just about anything. I have been irritable, angry, frustrated, and in pain. My back did not get better. Instead it got worse. It has progressed to a real 'thorn in my side.' It takes a minute for me to get up from a chair.
When I walk, I cannot stand straight up immediately. My bones and sinews need to warm up so that my back will finally allow the last of the vertebrae to move and thus allow my back to be in proper walking condition. I know what it feels like to walk like an old man.
This pain has caused my body to ache, and thus my attitude just stinks. Several times today without thinking, I dropped the F-bomb which is something I am not keen on doing. :Maybe Peace isn't peace at all. Maybe Peace is a step towards war. The only way to have peace is to irradiate those who annoy you so that you finally can be at peace. Or at least everybody will fear you. But knowing my love of God, those ideas just don't line up.
Sure, Sure... he wiped out the whole world with a flood....
Sure, Sure... he wiped out whole civilizations who stood against his chosen people...
But is that really what God wants? No. God being perfect, and without sin cannot coexist with sin. The world during the flood was full of sin. Fallen angels were mixing with humans and having children. The world had lost it's focus of the one true God. With it, he wiped out the world to ensure that all that he had promised would come to fruition.
The nations that were annihilated in the old testament worshiped false Gods. They performed heinous acts against nature and morality. Child sacrifice, and other evil were part of the worship to their Gods. God's people could not coexist in a land filled with those who were polluted. He couldn't further the seed of Abraham in a land that would not harvest a Godly people. Even after winning the promised land, God's people fell short.
God wants us to be at peace. Peace means to operate harmoniously without violence or conflict. We sing songs in church such as 'Peace Be Still' which remind us that we need to bring our nature, and our faith under a flag of Peace.
I believe what God has shown me today is that I need to be at Peace with myself. Ever since I can remember, I have had some battle with being overweight. I have hated myself fore more than twenty five years because I didn't quite fit the mold of my peers. I was bigger, heavier, and simply built different than those around me. In High School and College, I didn't fit the mold of the sexy man the girls wanted. Most wanted the scrawny emo type guy who was in touch with his feelings. Me, I played football but dressed like Silent Bob well before Jay and Silent Bob were popular. Yes, I wore trench coat and wore a baseball cap backwards at school. That was simply me.
No only if I could make the money Kevin Smith makes....
Honestly, it is tough being able to be 'At Peace' (imagine quote fingers here) because I have so many things I HATE about myself, my circumstances and world I live in. So, how.... HOW am I to be at peace?
Interesting enough, God led me to Alcholics Anonymous... Let's look at the Serenity Prayer"
Serenity Prayer
GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living ONE DAY AT A TIME; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
You see, the answer to living in peace isn't something that you just OBTAIN. It is something you strive towards. You can have Peace by accepting things that you cannot change. This means for me, that the things in my life that I have struggled with are simply there. If I cannot change them, there is no sense in fretting over them. Also having courage to change the things in my life that I know I can obtain will give me inner peace. Both are actions that don't happen over night. It isn't some hippy-drippy statement. It is an action.
Enjoy one moment at a time. That is powerful. Take each opportunity to find joy. Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow for we do not know what tomorrow brings. We can only enjoy the present, we can only deal with today. So instead of the worries and the frets, take time today to enjoy the experiences.
You know the next sentence talks about hardship as the pathway to peace. Interesting enough my back pain has taught me that I know that hardships come. That they teach me what is important and to focus on things that make me better. Tonight, I braved the jacuzzi. My fears of people laughing at me, small children running and crying or PETA throwing paint on me where all for not. I was the only one who was relaxing in the jacuzzi by the pool. It did wonders for my back and I feel ten times better already.
The final couple of sentences addresses the rest of what encompasses my everyday concerns. This world is bad, I have to accept it. I have to find my peace in the things that bring me joy today. Let God handle and fix the rest. It won't happen with me fretting about it and every time I try to fix it.... I make it worse. Trust God, he can handle it.
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