Peace

Since it is by faith that we are justified,
let us grasp the fact that we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…
This doesn’t mean, of course,
that we have only a hope of future joys—
it means we can be full of joy here and now
even in our trials and troubles.   
-Romans 5:1, 3–5

How do I do this?  What does peace through grace look like in my daily life? What am I to do, and not to do?  Think or not think?  Act on or speak about, or refrain from doing  or saying? 

I know that God will do for me what I cannot do, yet he will not do for me what I can do.  For me, since—like every every everyone now and in the past and forever—my life is full of loss, pain, grief and so on—what’s a girl to do?  One thing I can do that always helps me find peace and joy is to practice gratitude for little things.  I like to joke, “Life is good!  There are no bombs falling on my head.”

 Fr. Thomas Keating wrote, “The love of God is constantly inviting us to review our childish emotional judgments, and to accept the good things of life & ourselves, of our being and to be grateful for them. Because gratitude, by all odds, is one of the basic dispositions for growth in the spiritual journey.” 

 - Martha Oaklander

Let us pray…

Lord, help me let you help me. Lead me to the habit to turn to you for guidance.Help me notice the beauty around me, to take delight in your creation and to find lots a of lil’ ways to be useful and kind. Show me what is mine to do and help me do it with joy. Amen.