I heard a comment by someone that all they wanted was to find peace in their lives. Calmness and serenity were ideals that they were striving for. That sounded great to me, until I thought about it carefully. Do I really want that I wonder?
Maybe I should just give up on that idea. Do we live in a world where we will find peace and lack of contention? Seems like if we find ourselves in a situation where there is no contention going on then we are simply not growing or improving. We are in decline. So if you want peace, accept decline. If you want growth, embrace the resistance. There may come a time when I need to put my guns in the ground and take my place in line on the long and slow march in decline, but seriously, while I am able bodied and kicking around, I am going to leave each morning guns blazing.
Not that I want to paint a picture that it is us against the world, I think we can find harmony with others as we make our way toward progression. However, it is absolutely hard work. People are going to always resist at first, and have their own agenda. This will cause a lot of contention and definitely maintenance along the way. I would not call this peace. It is just reality. Everyone has their own ambitions and own agendas, we need to work hard at finding a path that works for them and us as we make our way to self improvement.
So I have carried this anxiety around that something is wrong with me because I cannot find peace. I am starting to realize that this ideal is just not going to happen. I do not have that power. I think that God may have that power, but even then the concept that swords have to be BEAT into ploughshares comes to mind. No matter how I look at it, this life is not a life where I am going to be living in peaceful, calm serenity. The struggle is very real and is very much reality.
Guy Reams
I think that’s true and even through resistance and hardship peace can be found. It can be hard but having peace to me doesn’t mean that life is easy, rather that we can find peace strength through Christ in the the midst of the storms of life. I think I’m many ways peace is a practice, people have mastered techniques training themselves to be peaceful in the most stressful situations, I want to have that kind of resilience and discipline.