I asked Chris to sit with me this week so we could share some things we do to find rest, peace and joy in difficult times.
Think about coronavirus, the isolation, the economy, loss of jobs and everything else that goes along with the specific situation we all currently face. Decisions we used to make without much thought now take a lot of thought, planning and emotion. There’s a lot happening to us and around us.
But what’s more important: what happens to us or how we handle what happens to us? Speaking for me and my wife, we don’t have a choice to live in this world. But we do have a choice as to how we live in this world.
Physical vs. Spiritual
An example would be what mind are we thinking from: our physical mind or our spiritual mind? What eyes are we seeing from, our physical eyes or our spiritual eyes? For us, it’s both and, at times, it can be a battle.
But when that battle happens, we have a place we go. It’s kind of like a secret place, a special place. You could say it’s our “dwelling place.” This is not a physical place, it’s a spiritual place. It’s where we meet with God. Sometimes we go together and other times we go alone.
Over the years, we have had many people tell us that it is truly amazing what we have been able to endure and overcome. People say, “No humans should have had to go through what you two have been through.” We could say the same thing about a lot of people we meet, maybe even you.
Blessings From Pain
It’s important to know that many of the experiences we have had, the things we have witnessed and the blessings we have been part of, we would not have chosen. They came from pain. They came from a place we didn’t want to be. They came from something we saw at the time as horrible or bad.
But God – through these same things, these same situations – has impacted, affected, changed and blessed us, both in the good times and in the bad times.
Finding Peace
How do we find rest, peace and joy in difficult times?
- We run to our secret place, our dwelling place!
- We choose to meet with God!
- We choose to think with our spiritual minds!
- We choose to see with our spiritual eyes!
- We choose to hear with our spiritual ears!
And when our physical mind kicks in – and it will – we choose to repeat steps one through five.
No matter where you are or what situation you are in, there is hope. We are praying for you. We pray that this would be the beginning of great blessing and growth for you and your family. We pray you will find your dwelling place.
God bless you!
