Making Room For Peace

26 01 2012

An edited journal excerpt from June 1991

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).”

I’ve been reading more in The Dark Night of the Soul by John of the Cross. The page I started with was so rich that I never turned it.

Simply put, he suggested that when God seeks to put within us a deep peace that is truly beyond our comprehension, He has to remove all traces of the peace that we can sense. When my circumstances are anything but peaceful, when conflict enters my life, when my heart is tempted to worry and concern, this is the very place where I can receive a peace that transcends all understanding.

Paul is not talking theoretically. He speaks with credibility from his prison cell. He isn’t talking about peace from a seat on the beach. He is talking about peace from a no-peace environment.

It seems God will not give us a peace beyond understanding until he removes the peace that we have come to understand. It may well be when I feel the least peace that I have opportunity to learn the deepest sort of peace in God.

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Writing: The Creative Present

30 12 2011

“I have learned the importance of the present, by analogy, in the writing process. If I focus on previous books and articles I have written, fretting over my failures and relishing my successes, or if I concentrate on the future, worrying about deadlines and carrying the whole book in my mind, I will undergo paralysis in the present. I must devote myself to the word and sentence before me, to the present moment.” (Yancey, Philip. Reaching for the Invisible God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000, p. 81).

Since I’m working on a first book, the problem of past success isn’t a biggie. More generally though, if I let thoughts of past failures or shortcomings, successes or breakthroughs fill my mind and heart, there is little life or creativity for me in the present.

I find myself paralyzed when I let the many opportunities of the future pile up on the present moment, as though I could be as omnicompetent as the Father Himself. I can’t. None of us can. God prepares many good works ahead of time for me to walk in, but they come to me one at a time because that is my capacity.

There will always be enough time and resources for the good work God is giving me to do, because He will never give me more than I can handle. Period. But do I believe that in this moment?

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The Real Value of Relationships

20 07 2011

I was again reviewing some of my reading from the recent past and came across these insights from Kosuke Koyama’s book Three Mile An Hour God. I’ve posted other insights from him here in “Unhurried: Is Jesus Too Slow?” and “Living Life at the Pace of Love.” I think you’ll appreciate what he has to say here about the real costs of technology and the real value of human relationships:

“Our technological resourcefulness is making our life expensive and lonely. Technology is ambiguous. It can enrich and impoverish our life. Technology is like fire; it can cook rice for our enjoyment and nutrition and it can also reduce our house to ashes.

Can we bring about an inexpensive yet resourceful life style? One way—perhaps the only way—to do this would be to cultivate, increase and deepen human relationship. Human relationship is inexpensive yet resourceful. This is grace indeed. The biblical God is the God of a covenant relationship with man. This means that the whole biblical teaching is rooted in relationship. Money has ultimate meaning only if it enhances human relationship. The salvation the Bible is talking about is ‘inexpensive yet resourceful’. If salvation is expensive in terms of hard-cash, then something is wrong with that kind of salvation.” (p. 121.)

“For Peter ‘I have no silver and gold’ means ‘I always look at silver and gold under the overwhelming sense of gratitude to God’. Or ‘what God has provided is abundant for me. I have no need for more. And I say this joyously’. This is the apostolic secret. ‘I have no silver and gold’ he said. Yet he healed the man. The secret of Peter is ‘gratitude’ and ‘Jesus’. These two combined bring healing, hope and resurrection.” (p. 141.)

(A repost from February 2010)


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The Real Value of Relationships

25 02 2010

I was again reviewing some of my reading from the recent past and came across these insights from Kosuke Koyama’s book Three Mile An Hour God. I’ve posted other insights from him here in “Unhurried: Is Jesus Too Slow?” and “Living Life at the Pace of Love.” I think you’ll appreciate what he has to say here about the real costs of technology and the real value of human relationships:

“Our technological resourcefulness is making our life expensive and lonely. Technology is ambiguous. It can enrich and impoverish our life. Technology is like fire; it can cook rice for our enjoyment and nutrition and it can also reduce our house to ashes.

Can we bring about an inexpensive yet resourceful life style? One way—perhaps the only way—to do this would be to cultivate, increase and deepen human relationship. Human relationship is inexpensive yet resourceful. This is grace indeed. The biblical God is the God of a covenant relationship with man. This means that the whole biblical teaching is rooted in relationship. Money has ultimate meaning only if it enhances human relationship. The salvation the Bible is talking about is ‘inexpensive yet resourceful’. If salvation is expensive in terms of hard-cash, then something is wrong with that kind of salvation.” (p. 121.)

“For Peter ‘I have no silver and gold’ means ‘I always look at silver and gold under the overwhelming sense of gratitude to God’. Or ‘what God has provided is abundant for me. I have no need for more. And I say this joyously’. This is the apostolic secret. ‘I have no silver and gold’ he said. Yet he healed the man. The secret of Peter is ‘gratitude’ and ‘Jesus’. These two combined bring healing, hope and resurrection.” (p. 141.)

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Categories : love, relationships, rich towards God, space for God, Unhurried

Classic Spiritual Counsel for Anxiety

31 01 2010

I love reading classic letters of spiritual direction. The quotation below is a piece of classic counsel for “nerves” (which, I think, would probably correspond to what we would call “anxiety” today).

“Personally I believe that the cure for nerves is an attempt at contemplation. I hope this does not sound absurd. But it seems to me that the one thing that does cure that maddening soreness of spirit that we call nerves is to sit still, in body, mind, and soul, and exclude every thought but that of God as He is in Himself. But it is foolish to say all this…. Perhaps too you have not much time to sit still bodily. I do think, however, that the remedy lies in that immense effort of cessation of effort. I wonder whether you ever take attributes of God, and set them before you, excluding everything else: saying the word-e.g. PEACE; over and over again-and then imaging it in a quiet sea, a space in air, a summer garden, and so on….” (R. Hugh Benson. Spiritual Letters of Monsignor R. Hugh Benson to One of His Converts. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1919, pp. 95-96.)

Being still like this isn’t easy, but when I am feeling fearful, anxious or just nervous, being still and remembering God in the simple way Benson suggests actually helps. You might try it.


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Completely Relaxed With God

20 01 2010

One of the continuing challenges of my spiritual journey is to always begin with God and not with myself. This comes in many sneaky ways. When I pray, I’m coming first to listen, then to speak my heart and mind. When I come to the scriptures, I come to listen. What are You saying to me, Father?

One scripture, for example, that really helped me recently is Isaiah 26:3-4…

You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

Perfect. Steadfast. Forever. Eternal. These are solid, lasting words. Is it possible for me to be completely relaxed with God through Christ? I hope to keep growing in my confident reliance on God’s trustworthy love.

The Message blurs the Isaiah 26 lines some:

People with their minds set on you,
you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it
because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.

There is perfect peace when my attention is steadfastly fixed on You, Lord. When my attention veers from a focus on You to a lingering in my own thoughts, that’s usually not a good path. Anxiety lies there. Fear. Pride. Discouragement. Whatever isn’t from God.

How might you enjoy a more God-focused day today?


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