By Sharon Campbell Rayment – Special to the Sydenham Current
COVID is on the rise again, groceries, gas, and all our essential services and needs seem to be increasing more and more.
This leads to stress, anxiety, and overall, I have found we lack the optimism we once had.
Our auto pilot is set to see the negative, the pessimistic, the problem rather than hope, optimism, and solutions.
How do we find inner peace again?
Peace is one of the great themes of the Bible.
In the fourteenth chapter of John, Jesus leaves His disciples a lasting legacy: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you… Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
What is peace?
The absence of problems and pressures?
No.
These are a part of our lives.
No one is immune to struggles.
Is peace the absence of all conflict?
No, there are times when even Jesus calls us into conflict with the destructive forces of life.
Peace is really built on God’s promise of His presence.
A presence that says we are not alone.
A presence that I rely and return to again and again in prayer to resurrect peace.
A peace that isn’t based on what I have, or what I do for a living, or my colour, or my sex, or my education.
Finding peace outside myself, in things I do or possess, is based more on ego.
And though this may win us friends and success, these friends may be in short supply, and the trophies and momentary success are forgotten, when these external elements change.
I can’t control what happens outside of me and around me.
I can however, control what goes on within me.
I can rewire the mind and resurrect the soul to orient towards peace.
“My peace,” Jesus says, “I leave with you.” Jesus gave us a path to find inner peace.
We can find this peace by following Jesus’ example to find a quiet space, to retreat to be.
To be still, to quiet the mind and to reconnect with the soul, with God.
Scripture says, “Jesus often withdrew to the solitary places in prayer.”
He withdrew to the desert, to the wilderness, to lonely places and prayed.
He sought solitude to reconnect within, with God, to reorient towards hope, seeking solutions through the soul, rather than the ego.
The ego that tries to fit in, to acquire, to dominate, and yet tells you that you are not enough.
Our soul longs for this connection, for this peace.
Yet it can be difficult to find this solitude, inner stillness, and silent the mind’s unending ego driven judgements and evaluations.
Yet if Jesus could find time during his busy life healing and transforming lives we certainly can try to find a quiet moment to pause.
It is in this pause as short as one minute, that creates the sacred space of possibility in our lives.
To breathe.
To connect within.
To be present.
To feel grounded and calm.
To discover possibilities that in our chaotic, noise filled world may not have occurred to us.
So pause.
Pause to breathe.
To find inner peace.
Inner peace that Jesus provides for us “that surpasses all understanding”, in that sacred place of possibility.
Please share this with others to create peace throughout the world as we join together as one breath, one heartbeat, one song, one pause united as one with all.
Until next time remember each breath you take is a breath of God uniting us all as one and spreading peace to all.
