My experience in the last several days has been more a matter of asking, "What will you not do?" I have numerous "peace-stealers" in my life. As I walk through my day, I find that I am given to follow all sorts of rabbit-trails away from God's peace. A couple of examples - as I came to my front door after work and my family was away at an Irish Dance practice for the kids, I felt a burden come on me. I was weighed down by all the things I needed to get done and a frantic to-do list was already building in my mind. Another situation surprised me. A complement from a friend unsettled me. I found my mind whirling and planning for how I could continue to impress this friend further to get more complements.
I have already tried to live in peace that was not not from God. The peace of indifference is tempting at times, but certainly has no relationship with the peace of God which is coupled with love and joy. The peace of ease is more tempting still, except that it makes me irritated with people (not loving at all) when they wreck my plans for ease and quiet. I realize that one of the big problems with seeking God's peace is that I confuse it with other forms of "peace" that get thrown around.
The "yoke" of a Jewish rabbi in Jesus' time was his specific teaching. The teaching of such rabbis (Jesus included) was not primarily book-learning, but life-learning. We might do better to be apprentices rather than students of Jesus because of the typical idea of learning in our day. A disciple of a rabbi was learning to become like the rabbi. They were not trying merely to understand what the rabbi said, they were trying to do what the rabbi did. So Peter got out of the boat to walk on the water as any disciple should who followed their rabbi. Rabbi Jesus, in picking his disciples, was saying in essence, "I believe you can be like me!"
So I find two things at work. First, I need to lay down my burdens. I would call them burdens and not my work or my calling. Burdens are the many things I take on myself. God does not put them on me. I gather them like a dust mop gathers dust. And they stick. When I am overwhelmed, I have been practicing reminding myself that God has given me enough time to do what he wants me to do. Usually that means I do not have to hurry if I am trying to walk with him in my life rather than trying to please everybody else and myself. God is not the author of hurry and worry.
Laying down burdens is really hard work! However, Jesus' promise is that as hard as it is, it is much easier than trying to keep living with the burdens I gather for myself. In order to take hold of Jesus' yoke I have to let go of the one I keep trying to pull myself. In daily terms, this means that I have to learn how to say "No" and practice the first part of the Serenity prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." As thoughts come that worry or hurry me, I am learning how to let them go and focus on what is at hand and what God would have of me.
At the heart of this is self-denial, or taking up my cross. I need to learn not to harbor and to continually focus on my own desires. I do not have to try to get rid of them entirely. That is not possible or beneficial. Rather, by putting them aside, I begin to learn which one are burdens and which ones are delights. I learn how God can satisfy all my desires so that I do not have to worry about them. I learn that the pride of uncontrolled desire is what makes my life miserable and ugly, while self-denial creates room for humility. If I am not spending all my time worrying about how to get what I want, I might stand a chance at doing what God wants (his will). I can thoroughly trust him to look out for my interests and meet my desires.
After laying some burdens down I am ready to take up the "easy yoke." Why easy? Well, I think it's at least easier than what I try to do on my own. The Bible calls "doing on my own" living "in the flesh." Instead God has provided grace which is his strength available to do what I cannot do on my own or in my flesh. If I live by grace, I live by the loving strength that God provides for people who do his will, what he wants. In terms of the yoke, I have the lift it up and put it on, but Jesus himself is my yoke-fellow. So who is really doing the work? Certainly not me. But I do need to submit to the yoke and go where he goes.
When self-denial does its work by God's grace in my life, I find there is space for humility. The rest that Jesus offers is not a vacation nor is it anesthesia. The rest comes from humility. Peace comes from humility among other things. Humility is not merely realizing how wrong I am, but more realizing how right and good God is. Humility lives where I am nothing and God is everything. Not to say I am worthless, but that my worth is found in how I relate with God, live with God, and serve my God. Humility is so much more than being "sorry." It is knowing my proper place in God's great universe.
All that to say I will seek peace by:
- Seeking, studying, and asking for the peace that Christ had as he lived, loved, and served other people in his earthly ministry,
- Learning to say "No" to my desires in everyday life and through deliberate practices by God's grace,
- Learning to say "Yes" to the commands of Christ my Teacher in everyday life and through deliberate practices by God's grace, and
- Anticipating and seeking a life where God is everything to me and where I rely on him to fulfill my needs and desires.
How would you find peace, rest for your soul? How would you learn from Christ?
