PEACE BY PIECE

A moment of peace and quiet seems hard to come by these days. Sleep has failed to honour many of us with its presence. Life can be messy for what seems like an unending period of time. But the other thing about it, is that it cannot and never will be linear. It is complex; complicated-and the strangest thing is there is beauty in that complicated state. You cannot really separate it in black and white, but you can recreate it into various shades of grey.

But what about that pause? The pause you create because you are afraid; the pause you create because you are too worn out and tired; the pause you create when you’re trying not to cry and the tears are blurring your vision; the pause you create when you’re tormented by the lie that you are invisible- a movie playing in an empty theatre. It can be a daunting pause that endures horribly. 

However, a solitary pause isn’t so bad. It teaches you the art of loving yourself so that you don’t have to use other people as coping mechanisms. You learn to take charge of your chaos by asking God to be your Prince of Peace. I find it interesting how society praises servanthood more than it does loving yourself. Loving yourself is considered self indulgence rather than looked at as self preservation. You need a well-loved me to love you.

The whole point of being a legacy is not for us to stand on strength proved by awards, accolades and accumulations but by leaving imprints in the parts of people that are similar to ours-our hearts. Anything that has no heart is destructive. Words without heart can kill. Praise without heart is noise. Presence without heart is like living in a morgue- only this time you exist with the walking dead. A mind without heart is slavery to fleeting emotions. You've heard the phrase “Put your heart into it.” I think many of us fear doing so because we innately hear “Put yourself into it.” Put all of you into it. It’s an exercise, if you ask me. And not many of us are fond of it, why? Because exercise requires …… you guessed it, ALL OF YOU!  You are expensive; or let me say it this way, you are valuable. Most of that value will gain interest only by you taking care of your heart-which really means, taking care of yourself. 

Perhaps that is why we are cautioned to guard our hearts, because everything we do (life) flows from it (Prov.4:23) Happiness, sadness, joy, frustration…all of them come from within; and you know why? Because sometimes life is simply doing what life does. It’s tossing you around from a praise break to a knee bruising prayer; from seasons of victory to seasons of discouragement. From laughing and feeling unafraid to sobbing and feeling unseen… that’s just what life does; it happens-and it doesn’t make it good or bad, it’s just life as it is; it is what it is.

So this is the charge for both you and I; your stability is dependent on your ability to manage your inconsistencies. Victories aren’t won every day, and while figuring this life out, you may have to allow the peace that you long for to settle piece by piece. Sometimes we expect that peace will come like an immediate mighty rushing wind, and sometimes it does. But sometimes peace will come to you drop by drop and maybe we need to learn to recognise these moments as we go about life. 

The drops matter, so that really when you can utter that your heart is full, you know damn well what you’re made of; the full four seasons of the year and not just the summer.

“I pray you prosper, and be in good health; just as your soul does prosper.” (3 John 1:2).