Peace

Posted by Ginger

“He himself is our Peace.”

Ephesians 2:14

Just beneath the noise and the commotion, the clutter and the pressures of daily living, lies an inner peace that is readily available as a gift from our Lord…only if we slow down enough to receive it.

I am not an expert on the topic of peace…just take one look at me and you will know that.  I am all over the place, scattered, off in an other world, running late to something and always looking over my shoulder to see if my kids are still within sight.  When I bend over to pick up one of my children, things spill out of my purse.

It’s just who I am…my personality.  But what spills out is important. 

In life – when things topple over – what spills out of us is an indication of what is within.  Is our reaction – one of anger or one of peace?

As I said I am no expert on peace – but Jesus Christ is.

He is the source and key to true peace.

Peace is not outside in, but rather inside out.

It begins with what is inside of our hearts.

The extent to which we experience peace, correlates to the extent to which we invite Christ into our everyday lives….and in all of it’s details.

One of the greatest challenges in life is to accept frustrations, disappointments, chaos or difficult relationships with a calm and peaceful heart.  There are so many types of burdens in life and we are not meant to carry them alone. 

“Come to me all you who are burdened,

and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

Peace is a choice.  We must first choose peace.  Just like forgiveness, we must first choose to forgive. But that is only the first step, the second step is to invite God into that decision and make it our prayer.  Because the things that cause us to lose our peace are not going to go away.  But when we invite Christ into them something inside of will change – our perspective, our attitude, these are the things that will change and then there can be peace. 

I used to compartmentalize Christ – only keeping on my Sundays. And the rest of the week I would hold my breath and white knuckle it.  My peace throughout the week was always running out.  I would fill it with other things. My life was full and full of stress too.

The extent to which we invite God into our everyday life can be measured by the depth and extent to which we experience that peace that He so wants us to have. 

And so the question becomes, have I invited God into all the parts of my life? My day? Is it a full invitation or partial?  Is the door to our heart open some of the time or all of the time?

Are our hearts ready to receive Him? Have we been faithful in how we live?

He wants to come into all parts of our lives and hearts. 

But what does that mean…to invite Christ into all of our hearts? It sounds good, but what does that look like to a mother who has a million and one errands to run and screaming kids on her back all day? What does that look like to a man who is unemployed and everyday is filled with fear of losing the home?  What does that look like to a cancer patient who has no hope of surviving the treatments?

What does that look like to the divorced and widowed – facing the world alone?

What does it look like to one who can’t seem to get out from under the oppression of addiction? 

Last week at Evening Prayer, Msgr. Mike Wilson gave a beautiful talk on what it means to give ourselves the gift of Christ this Christmas.  His reflection answered many of these questions… our job was to apply it to our own live.

He spoke about the three areas of our life in which we can invite Christ in.

They are:

1.    Personal

2.    Social

3.    Spiritual

As he dissected each area, he put our lives to a test of questions pertaining to that particular area.

Personal:

Question for God: Who am I Lord and how do you see me? Where do I need to grow?

Question for self: How do I see myself?  What is my attitude on life?  Is it positive or am I negative?  Do I see things in life as a glass half empty of half full?  What do I listen to? What TV shows do I watch? Books do I read?  What do I allow myself to read, see, hear?  How do I spend my free time?

Social:

            Question for God: Lord, can You help me choose good friends?  Can You help my children to chose their friends wisely?

            Question for self: Who do I associate with? What kind of conversations do I have?  Do I gossip?  Do I complain?  Do I criticize? 

Or do I encourage others in conversation?  What kind of groups do I belong to?  Are they Christ centered? How do I reflect Jesus Christ in my social settings?  Do I make Him present to the world?

Spiritual:

            Questions for God:  Lord, how can I become more aware of your presence in my life?  How can you use me?  How can You heal me?  How do You see me/  Teach me how to be still and hear you in my life.  Teach me how to see others as You see them.  Help me to see what lies beneath the surface.

            Question for self:  Do I pray?  Do I spend time being still?  Being quiet?  Do I listen?  Am I aware of His call in my life?  Do I respond?  And how do I respond?  Am I cooperative with god’s grace or do I resist…because of pride?

So the question that I ask myself, after listening to Msgr. Mike’s talk becomes this: “How is Christ a part of my everyday life?”  If He is constantly knocking, am I answering Him? Am I letting him in?

I do take great comfort in knowing that there is no such thing as perfect peace until we get to heaven.  But scripture says, we can have a measure of wholeness in this world…if we accept His invitation.  And until we get to heaven, Christ is that bridge to fill in the gap…

”Peace I leave you, My peace I give you”.