One of the feelings I have noticed over the month or so since I have returned from Japan is, occasionally, a sense of serenity.
It is hard to grasp, this serenity. If I think too much about it, it escapes my grasp. If I try to make it come to me when I think I need it most it eludes my flailing about. But if I am patient - if I simply wait for it to come - it comes.
I am not really sure where it is coming from - if it "The Peace of God which passes all understanding" (which it very well could be) it seems, well, less supernatural than I would have expected (Not sure what I anticipated, really. Just something more, you know, Thunder and Lightning and Wheels with Eyes). If it is the result of making a decision and being comfortable with a path, that could be true - except that I am not sure what path I have chosen ( I would be very surprised to find that settling my mind that Iai is the path forward is as life changing a decision as this seems to indicate).
But even to question where or why this serenity has come seems to undermine the whole concept of it. In life, at least most modern life, people seem very eager to run hither and yon seeking "peace" by being incredibly active and frenetic and perhaps mistaking serenity for exhaustion. Or if they have it for a moment, trying to discover what caused it so they can go back to that same well again and again.
It does not really seem to work that way, however.
So for now, I take simple comfort in the fact that it is there. If it is of God, then it will grow all the more. If it is a decision that I have made (perhaps unaware), then it will manifest itself in time. In either event, the true point of it is to be serene, not necessarily to question how it has come.
Everybody and everything in the world is right where it should be. It was put there by our Maker, and once ya realize that, you see that by extension, you are right where you are supposed to be too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I understood that I began to see things differently and contentment is a lot easier.
God's voice is in the whisper, TB...
ReplyDelete1 Kings:11-12
As for the serenity:
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13 New International Version (NIV)
I think the best part of growing old is realizing how little we actually do need, materially...
Plus one to all.
ReplyDeleteGlen - You are right, of course. I am in fact where I am needed and meant to be, even if does not always feel that way to me.
ReplyDeletePete - I think my changing views on my life has a great deal to do with this serenity. Not always having to chase things, or feel like I need to, makes a difference. It also, at least for me, changes how I view things like jobs and why I do what I do.
ReplyDeleteLinda - I am fortunate in that I have a large group of such good thinkers that read here.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me profoundly happy. A good reminder to thankfully trust and not fret.
ReplyDeleteThank You Leigh. Sometimes I am slow, but even God can get through to me on occasion...
ReplyDelete