Active Serenity

 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 4:4-7  

Active serenity.

Being content with where we are right now.  

Seeking God's reasons for why we are where we are and accepting them, is the only way to find true contentment and satisfaction within our current circumstances.  Not being afraid to leave our present location is the ultimate way to live fully right where we are, because we know our life seeking God will only get better in each new location, goal, relationship, or journey.  And even though leaving is hard every time, God is calling us to something better in each step.  Until ultimately, we reach our final destination, Heaven, with Him.

 "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

-Philippians 4:11-13

A friend and I were talking about this and he mentioned a quote by C.S. Lewis from The Four Loves,

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

Fear makes us selfish, makes us stones.  Not allowing others to invest in and love us or not loving them in return is lonely.  After a while, just as C.S. Lewis says, this causes our hearts to harden in hopes that we will protect ourselves from being left and/or feeling pain, heartache, discouragement.

God says,

"It is not good for the man to be alone" (Gen 2:18).

But often times we allow past memories of hurt build walls around our hearts and minds.  We let people in only so far, because we know if they get close enough, they can hurt us and that is scary.

In our fear of being left alone, we make ourselves lonely.  That way it was our choice, not theirs.

I was a wall builder.

But after allowing Him in,

God is helping me tear them down.

It hurts.

Often times I am still scared.

But He remains faithful and always catches me right when and where I need to be caught.

I'm loving the vulnerability, and amazed at how much He has changed my actions, heart and mind.

The peace He gives me in situations, when I normally am a frantic freak.

He amazes me by taking the very things that caused my fear and using them to strengthen and heal me.

Mmm, His ways are sure better than mine.

The ability to not know what tomorrow brings, still push forward, and be content in the uncertainty is not a characteristic of my own..

 that is from Him.  

Him in me, 

but it took my surrender.  

It took trusting in Him to show up, crediting Him when He did

and thanking Him for it.

Building our relationship, not just continuing in a rote religion.  

"I had feelings of fear about the future...The devil kept on whispering, "It's all right now, but what about afterward? You are going to be very lonely"....And I turned to my God in a kind of desperation and said "Lord, what can I do? How can I go on to the end?" And He said, "None of them that trust in Me shall be desolate." That word has been with me ever since."

-Amy Carmichael

Do not be afraid to

love, invest, live where you are.

Even if you know you are eventually leaving you can help God change a life.

You could miss out on a great friendship, a love filled life.

Personally, I want to try to live a life helping do something to make the places I am in better.

If you know me or have read any of my blogs you can obviously see I love food and cooking.

In many of the foods I've shared with my friends and family, I took chances by trying something outside the given recipe.  Taking a gamble by adding ingredients that are not always typical.  I could have followed the lines and not taken the risk of potentially messing up.. but that would have only led to a boring copy, instead of a memorable new experience.  

No thought, no investment.  

My food would miss the thing that makes it unique, a personal touch.  I take time, I think about what I'm putting into it,  I contemplate what would make it better.. always trying to improve it.  I want you to know you matter to me when you eat it, and that I was not just creating something to nourish your body, but wanted you to feel nourishment in your soul.  

To taste it and be able to tell, "love is in this."

It is okay to long to be somewhere else, because ultimately as Christians, we do belong somewhere else.  But if we keep looking only Heavenward or to our next location, we miss out on the opportunity and presence of Christ right where we are at and the desire He has for us to share Him with others there.

Take the chance of investing and being invested in,

put that pasta sauce on your salad,

start that Bible study,

go to that small group,

say hello to that cashier,

send that letter to your Aunt,

volunteer,

live,

love.

Let God invest in you,

so you can invest in others.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"

-James 1:22-27