Peace can often be disrupted by change. Change can wreak havoc on our faith, encouraging us to put our hope in the next season, for the peace found in heaven. Is the peace of heaven your goal?
It’s brilliant, the colors produced by frost, but this is July. Summer in New Hampshire isn’t a time for such change. The weather has been wacky. We’ve gone from heat wave to frost filled nights and back to summer in a matter of days. Due to the unexpected frigid temperatures, the vines growing alongside the road have turned a vibrant red. These colorful leaves are a view not normally observed in summer. Nature has an expected course, and yet change has disrupted it.
Our lives are similar to the roadside vines. We’re comfortable. We schedule our days, plan for futures, and have become complacent with the world that surrounds us, as if what is will not change. Everything has a season. We work hard, strive toward goals, and expect that one day we’ll enjoy the fruits of our labor, both financially and personally, but unexpected change can disrupt those plans.
Unwelcome and often difficult to accept, diverting our journey in directions we never imagined, things beyond our control arise, impacting our calculated steps. Change is hard. Rather than life conforming to our plans, we find ourselves adapting on the fly. We scramble to adjust, intent to still achieve the end goals we treasure, our eyes ever on the future. With our focus so often on what’s ahead, our energy spent on maneuvering the myriad of unexpected diversions, we’re never at rest. But the goal is worth it, isn’t it?
This scenario resonates in our Spiritual lives as well. When unexpected issues arise and challenge our faith, we struggle, and work diligently to get the path to peace in view once more. We look forward to heaven and what God has waiting for us there, as if that’s the end goal. Infuriated by the world’s injustices that we can’t seem to rectify, we look forward to the peace we’ll experience one day in heaven. We anticipate a time in which peace and love will rule. Just as with our plan toward retirement or material goals, what is beyond our reach has become our focus. However, God’s Kingdom is meant to be experienced today!
It isn’t beyond reach. It’s not an unseen image off in the distance taunting us. You don’t need to work toward or wish for the end goal of heaven’s peace when God’s Kingdom is present and surrounding you now. You simply need it revealed to you. Turn to Christ. Commune with Him. Be with Him. There is no effort necessary, just a choice to let Him be your King. Let Him open your eyes to the Spiritual realm that is closer than you humanly can perceive. The more intimate your relationship with Christ, the more you see God’s will at work. Unexpected chaos or change becomes seen as God’s purpose. You sense the filling of His Holy Spirit within your being, imparting peace and joy, regardless of circumstances that previously challenged your walk.
Autumn in July
Nature has no choice but to go along for the ride, adapt without complaint, and glows in brilliance from the circumstances it endures. Rather than looking ahead toward a goal and working to achieve it, rest and enjoy the space of today, sitting at the feet of our Savior. Live in His Spiritual realm now, the Kingdom of God. Let His will be done, and enjoy His peace as it wraps around us. Tomorrow will likely look different than we’d hoped, but God is there and allows us to adapt to His will. Trusting that He is in control and resting in that is powerful.