Peace Within

We live in a world full of chaos and instant everything. I found myself so frustrated the other day when information was taking a bit longer to load on my smart phone then it usually does. It was a matter of a minute or so. I stopped myself in my frustration and reminded myself that not so long ago, smart phones didn't exist and I survived just fine. I reminded myself how slow and limited my first P.C. was way back in 1988. Everything was done through DOS and the monitor had three display colors for most programs...White, turquoise and purple, yet, we enjoyed it for what it did that had not been done before in our lives. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and realize, instant everything is not the only way to live. This morning, I decided to not turn on the computer first thing this morning, but instead chose to walk out the back door, head to the rose garden, sit in the far corner at the little cafe table we have there and just watch the sprinkler do its job. I watched the world around me with open eyes and a free mind. I saw the miracle of creation in every direction. I heard my own breath in the silent moments when the birds took a break from singing their morning praises. I felt the warm sun and laughed at how wet I got myself when I decided to move the sprinkler a bit, seizing that moment to enjoy that childlike feeling of running through the water on a hot summer morning. I had time to pray, openly and wholly and without feeling pressured that there are things waiting for me to do, or feeling that uncertainty that the phone might ring, and steal this moment in time that cannot ever be recovered fully. There are times when I so wish I had been born 100 years before I was. I seem to fit that era better, but God choose the time of my birth and He does know best, but in my mind it just seems better to have lived in a time when there were more natural demands made on us. Planting, harvesting, seasons for things, well defined parameters. When there were not so many blurred lines in ethics. All this aside, for the truth is I live in this age, this time period, this present world, there remains the fact that for all of us, we can in all circumstances make the choice to have peace within. Faith that there is in control a higher power that will lead us down the right road, to the right place, with the right people, if we listen. If we stand still long enough to wait for the answer. At times the answer comes at a slower pace than we would like, much like my smart phone at times. We are impatient, self serving and ingrained with the idea that independence is always strength. Its not. I know being dependent on God is a greater strength for me personally. My independence always seems to be tainted with rebellion...the "do it my way" mentality and in a flock of sheep, that's not what the shepherd wants to see.
“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."