Consider This.
- Feb 5, 2018
- 4 min read
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
Heading into a life of
school
university
work
relationships
family
money
newness
same old same old
regrets
mistakes
sickness
joy
choices
pain
unexpected this and that in our growing world of global and local chaos
with bills and thrills that are just as easy to come by
as the thoughts that provoke and evoke feelings of
worry.
In the molecular,
condescending,
ripped up, wrapped up way we live our lives –
one foot in front of the other,
one hand pulling, the other hand pushing,
breathing from paycheck to paycheck,
buying into the gas guzzling appeal of society,
being deafened by the roar and rush of thought,
suffocating unknowingly in a bubble of ignorance and isolation-
we shut our doors to the pain that our neighborhood is facing,
we close the blinds of our eyes and spray paint ‘Do Not Disturb’ on our fences.
We hide because we can’t control, yet
we hide because, above all we can do, think, or be, we try to control so we worry
selfishly…
… so the sunrises start to look the same,
the days become mundane.
We wake up every morning, try to sleep every night – wondering
what is black from white, truth from a lie, hope from hurt,
the grey area grows a larger divide
between head and heart,
between duty and desire,
between debt and dreams
– we feel lost and overwhelmed.
Our thoughts collide with our emotions until our emotions are thoughts and our thoughts are emotocon “emotions”.
And we get tired, upset, and despondent, muttering, moaning for change.
Why?
There is a longing in our souls to be something greater,
to see our dreams come to pass,
to feel alive without shame of the past,
to know and be known,
to love and be loved,
to behold and be held from one day to the next.
But, if we awake to heartbreak and
hide to be seen and
make out reality to be fake,
when will we breathe?
If we learn to live with regret and pain,
till we are stained with bitterness and offense,
if we smother each other in the hypothetical ideals of stress ridden appeals,
can we not object to the fact that we were born for another place?
A place
where water and walking are one and the same,
where to willingly give up the burden and the weariness in order to take on a new kind of yoke is life and life abundantly,
where casting our cares in prayer and petition allows us to forfeit anxiety,
where worry is toppled over by thanksgiving,
where the fight against feeling out of control is won by giving up control.
A gospel the world doesn’t preach,
a language the world doesn’t speak,
a lifestyle the world doesn’t teach is shod in the word: Peace.
The world declares ‘do what you want to do’,
God whispers “Peace! I have called you.
In order for you to get your peace that transcends all understanding,
you first have to give up your understanding.
In order for you to not be anxious about anything,
you have to be thankful in everything.
In order for you to become what you were born to be,
you need to believe that I AM the Prince of Peace who
knows the beginning from the end.
who sees what is around the next bend,
who knows the ins and outs,
Who blesses you daily with breath and a beating heart
that allows you to rise and rise again when you’re falling apart.”
‘Do not worry about tomorrow’
does not mean
do not think for,
plan for,
expect for,
or hope for tomorrow.
‘Do not worry about tomorrow’
means
do not give way to anxiety or unease, allowing your mind to live off of difficulty or gossip to appease – to harass yourself with ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’, to strangle yourself with verbal and mental Ferris wheel rotations of ‘what will I eat, drink or wear’.
Instead
look at the birds of the air.
Exhale your cares to the only One who wears
holes in His hands and feet
and convince yourself of this:
that neither life nor death, neither angels or demons, your past, your present or your future, any powers or persons, things created or written on a pink slip, a doctors call or a computer chip, a growing debt or sinking ship can separate you from God’s love.
God has called you to a life
that is far above what you can think or imagine
and in the churning and burning of your soul for something more,
something greater than before,
know that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour
hour after hour after hour,
so don’t leave the house without ‘shoes’ on.
Peace is so much more than a hippy sign or a logo for a humanitarian design.
It brings freedom
And an awareness of the Kingdom
Peace fills
Where little else will
So be still
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” John 14:27
Enjoy listening to this Spoken Word on my Media page!
Originally written under the title "Peace versus Worry". AKS (C)
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