Friday, December 13, 2013

All is Calm

Peace. Last Sunday was the second of Advent, the Sunday of Peace. I've been thinking about it all week, as it's something that has eluded me lately. Inner peace, peace and quiet, world peace. As human beings, it seems we spend inordinate amounts of time trying to achieve this to varying degrees of success.

A week of feeling restless, busy at work, rushing around, and the closest I've come to peace is riding the subway wearing noise-cancelling headphones, existing in a bubble where all I hear is the music and my breath. No serene Mary in a Nativity Scene am I.

How was she so calm and peaceful, anyway? She had just given birth in a stable. A noisy, dirty stable. No sedatives to be had, nor any wine in sight, so wouldn't she have been freaking out? Or at least freaking exhausted?

But then, peace doesn't mean being problem-free. It's not floating through life on a cloud, spouting resolutions for world hunger and nuclear disarmament, as cool as that would be. Peace is finding a moment of calm in the storm. It's knowing someone is walking beside you, or maybe even carrying you, when you're not sure of the way.

Mary knew the key to inner peace was rest. I'm not talking about physical rest, although that's also necessary. I'm talking resting in the one who will take all your burdens and make them his own, if you just let him.



 This Christmas, if you find yourself going crazy, Keep Calm and Rest in God.


No comments:

Post a Comment