How correspondingly ironic it is that we look for that which we
either don’t have, or we have but want more of; the scope of the present issue:
peace; inner harmony.
Jesus promises us that peace and the sufficiency of the Spirit,
if we will partake:
“Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you.”
~John 14:27a (NRSV)
An Attempt To Describe Peace
Peace is a gladdened nothingness
where acceptance rides sway and conflict is ever lower in our interest than
just being is. Just enjoying ‘being’ is salubrious.
Peace doesn’t try; indeed, it does
not; it cannot. It just is. Why try and do something so apparently wrong?
Instead, peace sits at rest with a more urgent and ever persuasive truth. It
contends against nothing. Nothing matters more.
As it’s known throughout both
modern and ancient worlds, this peace we seek is ever-present, abiding within
the flourishing flow of life itself. And yet, how is it to be known, personally,
deeply?
Peace is a state of mind and
heart; and one can help the other there.
The Contributions Of Both Mind And Heart
And Their Amalgamation
Where there’s thinking, there’s
also feeling. Both are involved in perception. It beckons, then, that
contributions for peace reside within cooperative investment at the level of
both mind and heart.
The mind advises for peace,
calming the heart by logic and knowledge: God is good. The mind thinks good, when
it can.
The heart empathises with the
mind, soothing its cognitive aches and pains, the dissensions from momentary
congruence: a personal ease. The heart feels good, when it can.
To experience peace we make a home
for it; a place where it might dwell, by sitting comfortably within stillness, facilitating
longer and more frequent visits.
We tend to the inner environment
much like a garden. We trim old growth, ridding callused memories. We blow them
into the wind. As they disappear from our possession we lose, also, our warrant
for them. We let them go. We allow them their disappearance. We focus on other,
more life-giving things.
As we dig up the soil in our
lives, day-by-day, we allow the regeneration within the matter that is our
lives. These stagnating compartments feel outwardly for the presence of oxygen
and they’re embellished with new growth.
***
For varying reasons peace is
sought. This peace is ever-present; we tap into it now if we want. It doesn’t
hide. All it requires is a coming home to truth. Both the mind and the heart
can help.
To allow peace to dwell within we
need to make room for it. We prioritise it. We raise its value in our personal
estimation. Then, God blesses us with it.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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