Stringing a hammock across my heart and mind

Her ways are pleasant ways,
    and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3:17

Peace comes from within and actually, now that I am old and greying, I can say with eyewitness veracity that there is little correlation between circumstances and inward calm. All of those poster maxims from across the years and cultures and religions join in this truth, the truth that He has placed in our hearts, that we might not sin against Him:

·      The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances. –Aristotle

·      The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. -Viktor E. Frankl

·      Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. –Mahatma Gandhi

·      I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation - Paul

·      I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. –Martha Washington.

·       

May I be disposed to Him. Because wisdom is about Him, and not about me. Trusting in Him and not in me. That was the whole Adam and Eve and snake thing… Who do you trust? Ah, well, Whom do you trust? (As I type, I am getting Facebook questions about subjective and objective pronouns.) Fear Him and not life. Wandering through the internet this morning… I found a lovely group, Shoestring Ministries, dedicated to asking the true peace question, not What is in this for me? but rather What’s In It For Him? This is what needs to be written on the tablet of my heart: Love and faithfulness.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for His answers. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. Back to my dorky eight-year-old self writing Philippians 4:4-7, The Living Bible, every single day at my little desk that my dad had set up in the library. The library with the “secret” passageway through the closet to our bedroom.

The older I get, the simpler it all becomes. Ah, wisdom.