Prefer the Given
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My friend Stacey was over two months ago for tea and snacks when she announced she was heading to France for two weeks by herself. Let me repeat: France. Two weeks. By herself.
Honestly, nothing could have sounded better to me at that moment. A moment where it was all I could do not to scream and throw something at the wall behind which my kids fought and yelled and the TV blared in the other room. A moment where my conversation with Stacey was weighed down by a sense of how far behind I was on some work deadlines and how overwhelmed I was with work left to do still today. A moment when I felt like two weeks alone—in France or, for that matter, the moon—would be the cure for all that ailed me.
So I faced down a choice: Either I could "prefer the given"—as my friend Jennifer had once suggested—in my own life (the noise, the deadlines, and the pressure) and be glad for Stacey. Or I could prefer the gift Stacey got (the adventure, the food, the time to think and write) and seethe with hatred for Stacey and wallow in bitterness for my own life.
Really. That's what it always comes down to. That's our choice.
I went ahead and chose the former. With this choice, I was not only able to stay friends with Stacey, but I was able truly to enjoy her beautiful photos and rejoice with her as I read her posts of her days in Paris and in the south of France.
I still think her trip sounds great—and I do long for some of the scenic peace in which she was able to soul search and pray about where God wanted her and what he wanted her to do—but it's not an opportunity God has given me.
Apparently he wants me to soul-search and pray in a different kind of peace. Maybe the sort my friend Emily described in a recent tweet: "Something I'm learning … gratitude and peace of mind are inseparable." Emily is a songwriter, so she's always tweeting lovely thoughts. But this one particularly struck me.
So much of the frustration I feel in life, so much of why I feel like life has taken a wrong turn or was just not supposed to be this way stems from not having peace of mind.
I have chaos of mind, most of the time. Peace proves increasingly difficult to come by. Even on those afternoons when I get to rock on my front porch or stroll through my neighborhood, peace is too fleeting to snatch and reserve for later.
And yet sadly, Emily's tweet touches on something I hadn't considered. Peace of mind doesn't come from outward circumstances. It comes from inside—from just 12 or so inches below that mind. From our hearts. Specifically, from where our hearts feel glad and content.
Emily's connecting peace of mind and contentment is brilliant. Probably biblical, even. And it's exactly what living gladly enables us to do. We can live at peace with who God made us and where God put us. When we're content and when we're at peace with this we can, as Paul says, "do everything through Christ, who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13).
Related Topics:
Comparisons, God's Will, Gratitude, Talents, Thankfulness
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Mari S
Being grateful for this thing called life...for the good, the bad and the ugly-characterizes people having deep peace that only comes from God. When we open our hearts to this gratitude for all of "it", God's wisdom, grace and infinite mercy is poured out in full measure--in every circumstance...just as He promised Paul! this is Thrilling! Of course it doesn't mean that in this life, all problems will be solved, just that we can have peace in the knowledge that it will be ok---even when it isn't!
Joyce Frank(Registered User)
Yes!
Hope Ferguson
The author says this "may be even Biblical." Indeed it is Biblical: 1 Timothy 6:6: But godliness with contentment is great gain.
Mark E.
I like the sentiments expressed, but I am not sure why choosing to "prefer the given" meant you couldn't be friends with Stacey anymore. Or am I missing something because this is a part of a larger piece?
Alison Hodgson
I gave it five stars, but my feeble click didn't register before. :)
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