PEACE

When Jesus was asked what commandment was the highest, he replied the highest commandment is to love God. The second highest is to love your neighbour as yourself.

Let us pray!

Gracious God, Loving Jesus, Holy Spirit guide my lips and the meditation of our hearts. Amen.

We all search for peace! What is peace? Is it an awareness of God’s loving presence in our lives? Is it an acceptance of yourself as you are, a wide perspective on life and the world around you and a feeling of being connected to others?

You may have heard the story of William. There was a flood. He prayed to God for help. William saw a large tree floating by but didn’t climb on it. He believed God would help him. Next some neighbours came by in a boat — but William was of strong faith and told them he was in God’s hands and God would take care of him. The flood waters came higher and William had to climb on his roof. Then there was a rescue helicopter with a ladder. William did not allow himself to be rescued since he knew God would take care of him. He waited and waited and eventually the water carried him away and he died.

When William came before God, he asked him why he was not rescued. God replied, "I sent you the tree, I sent you the neighbours and I sent you the helicopter! You didn’t see me in the help I sent you!"

William had forgotten that we are the tools God uses to do his work!

The first step to peace is awareness. An awareness of what is going on around us, an awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily life.

On the day I wrote this paragraph I became aware that I had been judging God all my life! I always felt that I was blessed yet I blamed God for pain and injustice in this world. Today I realize a simple fact. I accept that God wants the best for each one of us. What we do to one another involves choice — how can we blame God for our choices! A heavy weight fell off my shoulders — why not simply accept the blessings with a joyful and thankful heart and a love of God!

During my early days as a parent, I took a parent effectiveness training course. I was surprised to discover that effective parents needed to change themselves so that the relationship with their children could change. Similarly, be ready to listen to the Holy Spirit and be prepared for the changes within you. As God changes us as we search — peace will come.

Become aware of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Are you aware of guidance in your life? Are things that happen a coincidence or are they intended to be? This awareness requires that you become sensitive to your inner life. As you grow, your perspective and awareness changes. You may become more thoughtful, more thankful, more prayerful, more confident in yourself and more confident in others! Your appreciation of life and humanity may intensify. Hopefully, you become aware of your prayer life, your spiritual journey.

Be aware of the miracle God gave you — your mind and body with all its beauty and its warts. Exercise regularly. The immediate effect of exercise lasts 18 hours. It can take many forms — do the one you like and enjoy. Be aware that exercise can affect our moods and energy levels.

Be aware of the miracle God gave you — your body — feed it well.

Be aware and learn to relax. A relaxed body is balanced throughout. Long and deep breathing allows oxygen and nutrients to flow everywhere. I will talk a little more about this later.

Be aware that peace requires that you feel good about yourself. Be happy to be you. Accept yourself for what you are and who you are. Become aware of your self talk — 60 percent or more of our self talk is negative. Focus on the good in you.

Create positive experiences for yourself and avoid negative experiences. Positive experiences can be completing a task, taking a walk, receiving a compliment, giving a compliment or it can simply be a cat coming to your lap and purring!

Be aware of unfinished business and deal with it

Imagine you are on the phone with a friend. Then another friend calls and you put the first caller on hold. Another friend calls. If technology allowed it, you could have many callers on hold. Callers on hold are like unfinished business.

We all have unfinished business:

— Concern for those who are close to us.

We know our unfinished business. But what about the unfinished business we have forgotten. Then again, did we really forget it?

Imagine an iceberg floating in the ocean. You only see 1/7 of it!

Our memory often is like the iceberg. We conveniently forget many things that we don’t want to remember.

Let’s say you have an unpleasant experience from your childhood. This unpleasant experience is pushed out of your conscious mind and will become an unconscious memory, but it is still unfinished business.

Unfinished business, that is repressed by us knowingly or unknowingly, can come back to us in physical form. Nervous tics, stiffness in our bodies, tightness in our chest, pain, inability to sleep, inability to concentrate or relax, unloving behaviour toward ourselves or others and at times God!

Unfinished business can make us look for reasons to blame others. We are short on patience and get angry very easily. We even try to forget in escapes of various kinds.

Then again we may not want to let go of injustices committed against us. We hang on to our dislikes and our hatreds. When should we let go of them? On our deathbed? Just before that? Never?

What do we need to do?

Let’s look at a loaded plum tree. By taking off one fruit, you lighten the load on the branch. By taking off more fruit you lighten the load on the branch and on the tree. The more you learn to let go, the more you lighten the load on yourself! Your shoulders will be freer and you carry less baggage around with you.

I have learned that you can let go of tension by learning to breathe in long and breathe out long. The speed of your breathing is a good indicator of your physical and emotional state. Shallow breaths mean less oxygen, tense muscles, a faster heart beat, and higher blood pressure. All of us have been told to take a few deep breaths when upset. Do it! Also, breathe deeply when you are anxious or when stuck in traffic. This is an opportunity for a paradigm shift -- consider slow traffic or a red traffic light as an opportunity to be good to yourself and do some deep and long breathing. Deeper breathing reduces muscle tension and lowers blood pressure, lowers the pulse rate and the heart rate. Eventually conscious breathing becomes part of you and it becomes a habit.

Peaceful thoughts also result in slower and deeper breathing. Take time to sit quietly and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to let go. While sitting quietly think about memories and places where you experience peace — while in prayer, at church, in your garden, or remembering your childhood.

As you become more relaxed, unpleasant thoughts may come to you. When you become aware that you are thinking of a particular incident, let the memory or thought unravel itself to you, the passive observer. When you can replay an experience and no longer feel anxious or angry or any other negative feeling — then the experience becomes finished business. You can now let go and place the burden in the lap of Jesus.

I would like to share some of my experiences? After practicing what I just preached I experienced many positive results. I could suddenly breathe as fully as I wanted, I felt as if an iron band snapped around my chest.

There is another very simple yet profound experience I had recently. My parents were divorced while I was still under five. I was given to my father until I was 6 years old and then grew up with my mother. My feelings toward my father had been negative. A couple of months ago a friend talked about angels in our lives — namely those people who have made a positive difference. I had an inspiring thought. My father helped to conceive me, therefore he must be an angel in my life. I really felt a softening of attitude towards him — . Both my parents have passed away many years ago, yet I was able to imagine walking, as a small child, hand in hand with both my parents – I recall that a feeling of peace and fulfillment washed over me. It is never to late to change an attitude – I was over sixty when that happened!

the Healing came from within, from the Loving Spirit of God that is responding to our cry for help and peace.

Even though I experience the serenity and beauty of inner peace most of the time, God isn’t finished with me yet. I am growing more aware of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

I thank God for the gift of his Son, who died for our sins. I thank my Gracious God for life, time, possessions, signs of his gracious love. I thank God for opportunities to grow, to pray, and to be a blessing to others.

Yes, the highest command is to love God and to love our neighbour as our selves. Become aware of the Holy Spirit in your lives and ask him to help deal with unfinished business. Learn to let go and place your burdens in the lap of Jesus. Be ready to love God and to love your fellow pilgrims. I would like to read a poem that has been a guiding light to many.

In all life’s greatest questions and problems that may come,

Let us pray!

Gracious God, Giver of all, Loving Jesus, Prince of Peace, Holy Spirit, giver of the Breath of Life – make us aware of your loving presence in our lives.

Help to free us from self-imposed chains that prevent us from letting go of burdens and placing them in the lap of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.