Serenity

[image error]April 15th – The tax deadline – passed last week. The hectic, chaotic, breakneck-fast-pace ended with a feeling of serenity last Tuesday morning. Don’t get me wrong, we are still busy working on all the extensions and other work put on the back burner during tax season. But Tuesday morning was nice – the calm after the storm. A thought hit me this evening as I was getting ready to leave work and change into my gym clothes. What if the moments we count ourselves blessed are actually the moments we overlook God the most? When everything is going good, when life is sunny with blue skies, when obstacles are a distant memory. What if we merely confuse our times of blessings for a lukewarm weather front of faith? Isn’t it better to be hot or cold, not the dreaded constant, invariable, stagnant plateau of Faith.

I heard Francis Chan say these words about a decade ago and they still bring a chill to my soul every time I recount them, I’m paraphrasing here, “If you can go a day without any struggles you should count the day wasted. Christ died so we could have the great comforter -the Holy Spirit – and when you lay your head on your pillow and notice you didn’t need his council, you should think of the day as a waste.”

I don’t know about you, but days when life is great, those are days I love. I love it when I wake up not stressed to the nth power. I love it when I don’t have to fret about what fire I’m going to need to put out. I love it when I feel like I can breathe a sigh, not because of relief but just because I wanted to breathe. But then I think, was I close to God on the good days? Was I talking to him throughout the day for a source of strength when I already felt strong enough on my own merit? Was I singing praises to him to find an eternal joy that this world cannot fathom because I was content with a smile I wore from a joke I heard on the radio. Did I even feel his loving touch in this blessed moment? Or did I confuse his tenderness with the peace of a lukewarm day?

I know God gives peace. I know God gives serenity. I know God can give us the best days and we can call it a blessing. But I sometimes wonder do we call it a blessing because God provided it or because we think we deserved it?

I don’t like climbing life’s mountains. They are scary, rough and painful, but the ones I have scaled I wouldn’t trade them. They taught me life’s lessons that a bible study couldn’t touch. They etched words on my heart that tattoos could never match.  They may have given me wounds, but my battle scars were mended by a Victor’s hand. Yes, the walls and obstacles may be overwhelming, but His Love is overwhelming as well. I would rather be consumed with His avalanche of grace than wading in a safe lukewarm pond.

May we see the moments of blessings as blessings from Him. May we lean closer to him as we stroll along the peaceful river. May that serenity cause us to draw closer to Him and not to ourself. It’s easy to overlook God in the peaceful moments. It’s easy to tune out a faith whisper when you are not searching. May we always search for the moments God is in…you will find He is in all of them.

Peace