Merritt Opening Song: #466 Wonderful Peace
Scripture: Isaiah 48:18, Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.
In a third grade classroom, a nine-year-old boy sitting at his desk suddenly has a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop and he can’t imagine how this happened. He knows when boys find out, he’ll be teased. He puts his head down and prays, ‘Dear God, I need help! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.’ Here comes teacher with a look that says he’s been discovered. A classmate Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl of water. Susie trips in front of teacher and dumps the bowl in the boy’s lap. The boy prays, ‘Thank you, Lord!’
Now instead of being object of ridicule, the boy is object of sympathy. Teacher gives him gym shorts to put on. Children are cleaning around his desk. But as life would have it, ridicule that should have been his is transferred to Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her, “Go away, you klutz!” After school at the bus, the boy whispers, ‘Suzie, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ Susie whispers back, ‘I wet my pants once too.’
When we hold on too tightly, life becomes dealing with one drama after another. We need to replace old reactions with new perspective, let go of problems instead of resisting and more peace will flow. When we spend life fighting or sweating the stuff, we lose touch with beauty. Perfectionism and peace conflict.
Their imperfections, the way they look, behave or live, by focusing on imperfection, by being overly focused, we get pulled away from peace. We insist things should be other than they are. Mother Theresa said, “We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with love.” Many live like one big emergency. Fearful, frantic thinking takes energy and drains creativity. Success we do have is despite our fear and never because of our fear. Inner peace is focus not on what we want, but on what we have. We enjoy ourself at home rather than waiting till we get to Hawaii. And if we don’t get to Hawaii, we have a great life anyway!
SONG: SAILING
You wake up in middle of the night. You think what you have to do tomorrow. Pretty soon, “I can’t believe how busy I am! Stop the world, I want to get off! Whose life is this anyway?” No limit how long this thought attack can go on, mental rehearsal, head full of concern. Sooner we catch our mental snowball, instead of obsessing, we say, “I claim God’s peace.” Contrary to popular belief, negative feelings don’t have to be studied and analyzed. The reason we feel sad, angry, stressed, and negative is because we take life too seriously. We fight life. Many live as if the secret purpose is to somehow get everything done. We stay up late, get up early, avoid fun, keep loved ones waiting. Our “in basket” or work list will never empty. There’ll always be work to be done, phone calls to make, things to complete, as long as life lasts. But don’t lose sight of inner peace. If we’re obsessed with getting everything done, we lack sense of well being. Life is not to get everything done but to enjoy each step of the way. When you die, there will still be a list of things to do.
I realized how much I interrupt others’ sentences. This takes energy to be in two heads at once. How can we listen if we’re speaking for them? Notice how much more relaxed we feel when we stop interrupting. Heart and pulse slow down and we’re present for conversations. To be heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. Those who listen will be the most wanted.
One of my bad habits I need to break is to stop correcting people. To simply let their statement stand. It’s joy of participating which is far more rewarding than the battle to be right. Let others have the glory. When we give up need for attention, it’s replaced by quiet confidence, letting others have attention. Isaiah 41:13, For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.” With God’s help, can we be confident? Peace Jesus gives is not lack of trouble, but trust He is always there. We want peace of God: we need the God of peace. God doesn't always still the storm, but He calms the sailor.
Many master neurotic art of worrying about many things. We mash past with future concerns; we get anxious until we lose our present moments. Life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans. We live like a dress rehearsal for some later day. No one has guarantee of tomorrow. All God gives is today. Fear is concern over what might happen, enough money, will children get into trouble, we’ll get old and die; fear is not about THIS moment. Keep attention on here and now. When we experience pleasure, we want it to last forever. When we feel pain, we want it gone now! Worry is struggle against natural flow of life. Life is just one moment after another, a nice moment followed by a different type of moment. If we accept this, we feel peace even when the moment changes. Peace is not absence of conflict; it's absence of inner conflict.
Remember people we meet are all here to teach us something. Obnoxious driver to teach us patience, punk rocker to teach us kindness, the heartbreaker, ah, the heartbreaker is to teach us lessons of the heart. Yes, I know, we don’t want to learn that lesson. Ezekiel 36:16, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give a tender, responsive heart.” Without peace, life is only frustrating, bother, irritation. Yet we hold onto resentments from a misunderstanding, a painful event or even the way we were raised. We waste energy feeling angry and bitter. Who said life was fair? We live in a world taken hostage by sin. We wallow how life is unfair, feel sorry for ourselves; self pity is defeating emotion that makes us feel worse.
Long ago in a small village, there was a House of 1000 Mirrors. A happy little dog decided to visit. He bounced happily up stairs to the doorway. He looked through the door with ears lifted high and tail wagging fast. In great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles warm and friendly. As he left, he thought, “This is a wonderful place. I’ll come back and visit often.” In the same village, another little dog decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed stairs and hung his head low as he looked in the door. When he saw 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back, he growled and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back! As he left, he said, “That is a horrible place; I will never go back there again.” Faces in the world are mirrors. What reflections do we see in faces we meet? Life is our classroom.
SONG: HE SAID PEACE
For many, our lives are so filled with stimuli, responsibilities, it’s impossible to relax. A wise instructor said, “Allow yourself to be bored. Do nothing. This is part of your training.” Why on earth would you choose to be bored? Instructor explained, “If you allow yourself to be bored, say for an hour and don’t fight it, feelings of boredom will be replaced with feelings of peace. After boredom, you will actually learn to relax, just being rather than doing. Sit still, look out the window. At first it feels too new and unknown, but it will get easier.”
Anxiety and inner struggle stems from overactive minds. While we eat dinner, we wonder what’s for dessert. While eating dessert, we wonder what we’ll do on the weekend. We pick up the phone or start cleaning. We’re frightened at nothing to do, even for a minute. Allow our minds freedom to NOT know. Just like our body, our mind needs a break from its hectic routine. When you allow the mind to rest in peace, it comes back stronger, sharper, more creative. Be bored awhile; it’s good for us. Be still and know He is God. “Come apart and rest awhile.”
When you feel your mind racing, when schedule gets out of hand, it’s sign to slow down, re-evaluate what’s important rather than power through everything on our list. When we’re feeling out of control and resentful of all we have to do, rather than rush, better to take deep breaths, go for a walk or take a nap. When mind becomes clear and peaceful, stress level reduced, we’re more effective. When we look back on life, how many of us are going to be pleased at how uptight we were?
It’s too easy to allow my mind to slip into negativity. When I do, the first thing that leaves me is sense of gratitude. I begin to take the people for granted, then love becomes frustration. For more peace, we need to focus on good in our life. Notice more things to be grateful for. We choose to wake up with gratitude in our heart. Everyone has high and low moods and monthly hormones, everyone. We experience who we are married to, our car, work, our potential, our childhood, entirely different depending on mood. When we feel low, we feel our whole life is wrong. Life is never as bad as it seems when we’re in a low mood. Low mood is not the time to analyze our life. To do so is emotional suicide. When you feel low, remind yourself, like little Annie, “The sun will come out tomorrow.” If you don’t fight low feelings, accept them gracefully, they pass just as surely as the sun sets. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. If we see each new issue as a serious battle that must be won in order to survive, we’re in for a rocky journey! The only time we’ll be happy is when everything and everyone is working out just right, and we all know how often that happens!
One unavoidable life lesson is dealing with disapproval. Life is full of praise and criticism. One person thinks I’m nice, another thinks I’m not. This back and forth, good and bad, approval and disapproval is part of life. Rather than feeling rejected by disapproval say, “Here it is again. It’s part of life.” When God came to this sinful earth, He experienced rejection, disapproval, and what He got for all His trouble was a slap in the face and nails in His hands.
God had peace because He could forgive rejection. God could look beyond people’s behavior. If we can’t look beyond our children’s behavior, it would be difficult to love them. If love is based on behavior, none of us would be loved as a teenager, none would ever get married. It’s tempting to focus on people’s behavior, comments, mean acts, and it can seem other people are making us miserable and robbing our peace. But WE are robbing our own peace. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on YOU, Isaiah 26:3.
SONG: PEACE IN THE SHELTER
A man was in the shopping mall with his 6 year old daughter. Punk rockers with orange spiked hair and tattoos walked by. Daughter said, “Why are they dressed like that? Are they in costume?” Father was tempted to pass judgment. But he chose a softer answer, “It’s interesting how we are all different, isn’t it?” The girl replied, “I like my own hair.” Instead of focusing on behavior, they enjoyed their day. People in India, Africa live in different culture and reality than us. Each sees the world from their eyes, think and react differently. When we expect others to see things as we do, we’re in conflict. Respect that God created us unique. When we remember everything has God’s fingerprints, that alone makes us special. When we criticize, it says nothing about that person. It says we have a need to be critical. Criticism is like swearing; learn to talk nicer. If we turn criticism into love and respect, we will all feel more peace.
If someone is criticizing you, look for the grain of truth in what they say. Then you will understand what makes them tick; your learning curve will be enhanced. I know, this takes power that only comes from Jesus to ask, “What are my blind spots?” If we believe we never experience criticism, then we think no glass will ever break, no one will ever grow old. Even beautiful glass will someday break; you’re not disappointed or devastated for time you got to enjoy this beautiful glass. This is how we make peace with reality, living in a sinful world.
Often we think if we lived somewhere else, had a different spouse, different job, a different home, circumstance, then we’d be peaceful. Truth is, if we get annoyed and bothered, feel frustrated, or constantly wish things were different, tendencies follow us wherever we go. Wherever you go, there you are. Choose God’s peace.
A wise man said, “For a long time it seemed life was about to begin, real life. Always some obstacle, something to get through, some unfinished business, some time to wait, some debt to pay. Then life would begin. At last it dawned these obstacles were my life. This taught me to see no way to happiness. Happiness is the journey.” Give yourself a break. No one bats 100 % or even comes close. If someone throws you a ball, you don’t have to catch it. We’re too willing to catch dramas of our life. We can drop the ball. Fish don’t always take the bait; we don’t have to either. If I caught all balls thrown in my direction, I would certainly go crazy and burn out. If someone insults or rejects you, throws criticism, you can catch it and feel very hurt, or drop the ball, refuse to take the bait, walk and go on with your day.
Focus on being a more loving person, which is in your control, and less focus on being loved or receiving love which is not in our control. Find secret of peace that love is its own reward. Try feeling angry without first having angry thoughts. Try feeling stressed without having stressful thoughts, feeling sad without sad thoughts, jealous without thoughts of jealousy. You can’t do it. In order to have a feeling, we must first have a thought that creates the feeling. It’s thinking that is negative, not our life.
This awareness will put us back on the path. Learn to treat negative thoughts the way you treat flies at a picnic. Shoo fly! 6% of world’s people living in North America uses half of world’s resources. If more were actually better, then we’d be the happiest people on earth. But we’re not! We’re one of the most dissatisfied on record. As soon as we get something, we move to the next thing. What if we appreciate blessings we already have? And God’s blessing is Peace.
SONG: PEACE SPEAKER