Peace

I think we often times feel that peace comes after the healing. I beg to differ. I think peace is more the path to healing. Well, an element of healing, anyway.

Think about it, if you don't have peace in your home, how can you heal? If there is constant stress being hurled around and you are kept in fight or flight mode, there will be no healing. Your body will be perpetually revved up and unable to calm down. The calming down is necessary for healing to occur.

If your workplace is demanding and highly stressful, how can you heal? People breathing down your neck or the weight of the company on your shoulders... healing cannot happen in this environment.

You MUST find what brings you peace! Is it a sunset? Run to it! Is the the lake in the mountains? Drive to it! Is it the sand at the dunes? Get on it! Is it a fire in your fireplace with a warm beverage in your hand? Make this happen!

When people tell me "I love to be busy" or "I thrive on stress" I start to pray for them. Busyness and stress are unhealthy and speak volumes to me about their perception of themselves. If you have a hard time slowing down and being still, your body will make you pay for it in one way or another. The relationships that matter will suffer. People's expectation of you to perforn will never cease and you will be stuck in a vicious cycle of dis-ease.

I can already feel some people pushing back at this notion. Let me just remind you of something. Genesis 1 talks about God creating everything. The last thing to be created was man. We tend to think that when God created man he, man, just turned right around and got to work, tending to the beasts and soil. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Man was created on Day 6 and Day 7 moves us into Genesis 2. What happened on Day 7? God rested, right. He set Day 7 apart as holy - a day to sit back, rest, relax, and enjoy the fruits of labor. Day 7 was a day of appreciating and man joined in.

So, man's first "job" was to rest in the Lord's work. Do you practice this exercise? Do you regularly take Sabbath time for yourself to be with the Lord or to sit back and enjoy nature? If you don't, why not? What is so important that you cannot give yourself time to reflect, ponder, give thanks, and move into the next time with reverence and refreshment?

This is my challenge to you - create a time of Sabbath and then set fixed boundaries around it. When you are able to unplug, for even an hour, your are telling yourself "I am worthy" and that will translate into other areas of life. I am not telling you something you do not know. If you've been on the rock long enough to be able to read this post you KNOW what I'm saying to be true. What I am doing is giving you permission to do so.