Living Holiness: Holy and at Peace

In one aspect, sanctification is an act, a thing done at once, like justification. The moment the blood touches us—that is, as soon as we believe God’s testimony to the blood—we are “clean” (Joh 15:3), “sanctified,” set apart for God. . . .  As the vessels of the sanctuary were at once separated to God and His service the moment the blood touched them, so are we. This did not imply that those vessels required no daily ablution afterwards, so neither does our consecration intimate that we need no daily sanctifying, no inward process for getting rid of sin. The initiatory consecration through the blood is one thing, and the continual sanctifying by the power of the Holy Ghost is another.  (Bonar, Horatius, God's Way of Holiness, Ch.1)

Signs of Life

Simply put, holiness is one of the qualities of new life in a person.  As we learned in biology, living things have certain qualities.  They eat and grow.  They move and seek.  Inanimate objects may have some similarities, but they do not live.  New life in Christ, like all other kinds of life, has one source: the Creator.  One of the qualities of this new life is holiness.

Holiness is not defined so much by what it does, but by the one who does it.  God does holy things because he is holy.  It does not work the other way.  Just because a rock can roll do a hill like a child, it doesn't make the rock alive.  In the same way, certain actions may look holy, but if life from above does not inhabit them, they may be as dead as a rock in the realm of holiness.

One way of determining the liveliness of our holiness is with another quality: peace.  Holiness without peace is dead.  (Peace without holiness is empty, but that is another thing.)  The lack of peace in a life that has "holy" actions is easy to see.  There will likely be grumbling and burnout.  This kind of holiness does not flow from the person as it should, but it must be forced out through direct effort.

Peace is in a close conversation with holiness in the new life of a Christ follower.  They are inseparable, like close companions.  But peace comes before holiness in a person's life.  Not so much in timing, but by necessity.  True holiness will not come without peace, yet true peace with God and other people always brings holiness along.

Holiness Starts with Peace

So it is a good idea to talk about peace first, but never without talking about holiness.  In a life with God, a person cannot accept peace with God without accepting holiness as well.  They come together and will not be separated.  Peace with God is what makes room for holiness in a person's life.  They move in together into your heart, but the conversation starts with peace.

The conversation about new life begins with the realization that we are dead.  We may have a certain sort of peace, but not peace with God.  When we ask peace why it seems so far from us, we may find the answer is that we do not have a life where peace can exist.  We are dead to peace.  Peace says, "I come with Jesus."  Jesus says, "My peace I leave with you.  I do not give as the world gives."  True peace comes when we stop resisting Jesus.

God chooses to overcome our resistance thorugh love.  He does not roll over us, but seeks to earn our trust.  The cross plainly shows our resistance to God both corporately and individually.  Whether we attack or abandon Jesus, we live in resistance to him.  The cross also plainly shows God's desire and ability to make peace.  In the cross our resistance is encountered and overcome.  Our resistance does not stop God or his plans, but it does leave us out in the cold, dead to him and his Son.

Trust is the acceptance of God's love as well as a realization of his place in the universe.  We can give up on our resistance now out of responce to his love.  We need not wait until our resistance is overcome by God's obvious presence and power.  Then it will be too late.  He does not make us trust him because trust cannot be earned in that way.  He wants our faith, not mere obedience.  That is why in Christ we find that God's way is to draw us near to him through love rather than force.

When we trust him with our lives, we have become alive to him.  Trust, or faith, is our end of the experience of being born from above, receiving new life.  Only in this faith can peace exist and grow.  We cannot contiually resist God and have peace with him.  We must come to trust him in all his ways as well as in all our ways.  When we open the door to Jesus and his Father, we will find peace in their company and, as we grow, also in the company of other people.

Holiness Completes Peace

In the company of such peace, holiness also makes an appearance.  Peace without holiness cannot make any sense of the cross.  Peace without holiness does not count the cost of following Jesus.  Peace with God means war with sin.  Our resistance to God does not disappear without a fight.  Actually we only discover the depth of our resistance when we go to war against it.  Resisting God shows up as our many sins with which we are familiar: anger, lust, lethargy, disinterest, etc..

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:“God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble."  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  (James 4:4-8)

Holiness begins with a preference for the things of God and resistance to the things of the world.  Holiness resists the works, words, and ways of people who resist God, starting with oneself.  It moves out into our relatiosnhips and finally out into the human institutions which are based on such resistance - the "world." In such resistance we begin to grasp the wonderful "otherness" of God.  "'My thoughts are not your thoughts.  Neither are my ways, your ways,' declares the Lord."  (Is. 55)

Peace begins with letting down our resistance in trust.  We embrace God.  In holiness we find a resistance to whatever is anti-God.  We embrace God, and no other.

Holy, Not Holier-than-Thou

Jesus came to a people who thought they were holy.  They looked to God and lived as his people in resistance to the world around them.  Jesus showed them that their holiness lacked peace with God.  They resisted the heresies of other pagan people, but did not bring peace to them.  Jesus showed them that their holiness was merely a religious exclusivism brought about by a religious preference.  Instead of being truly holy and beyond this worldand its ways, they were playing the same game as everyone else, seeking to be at the top of the ladder by condemning other people.  They were "holier-than-thou" rather than holy.

Jesus not only taught about the life from above, he lived it.  He is both Teacher and Lesson.  Jesus does not only teach us, though, he delivers us.  We are to be delivered from the world and its ways: being simply saints or "holy ones" rather than "holier-than-thou ones."  Holiness is our birthright and our inheritance.  Through Jesus we are accepted into God's holy company.  Through the Spirit of Jesus we are taught and enabled to become holy.  Holiness is both our identity and calling.

All of our hope for deliverance from this present evil age lays with Christ.  He is the one solid place on which we can stand.  Our trust in Christ himself is not work, but rest.  As Martin Luther wrote to his friend:

I am accustomed, my Brentius, for the better understanding of this point, to conceive this idea, that there is no quality in my heart at all, call it either faith or charity; but instead of these I set Christ Himself, and I say this is my righteousness. He is my quality and my formal righteousness, as they call it, so as to free myself from looking unto Law or works; nay, from looking at Christ Himself as a teacher or a giver. But I look at Him as gift and as doctrine to me, in Himself, so that in Him I have all things. He says, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ He says not, ‘I give thee the way, and the truth, and the life,’ as if He were working on me from without. All these things He must be in me, abiding, living, and speaking in me, not through me or to me, that we may be ‘the righteousness of God in him’ (2Co 5:21); not in love, nor in the gifts and graces which follow.  (Luther, in Bonar, Horatius, God's Way of Holiness, Ch. 2)

In this way, holiness is our identity as we have faith in Christ.  Holiness is not a gift from him, but what he is in us.  Just as Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life", he also says, "I am your holiness."  We stand nowhere else.  We go nowhere else.  This resting place in Christ does not move us into sleep or lethargy, but into the work of the Holy Spirit.

Holiness from Resting in Christ

The Gospel does not command us to do anything in order to obtain life, but bids us live by that which another has done; and the knowledge of its life-giving truth is not labour but rest—rest of soul—rest which is the root of all true labour; for in receiving Christ we do not work in order to rest, but we rest in order to work. In believing, we cease to work for pardon, in order that we may work from it; and what incentive to work, as well as joy in working, can be greater than an ascertained and realized forgiveness?

That there are works done before faith we know, but regarding them we know that they profit nothing, “for without faith it is impossible to please God.” That there are works done after faith we also know, and they are well pleasing to God, for they are the works of believing men. But, as to any work intermediate between these two, Scripture is silent; and against transforming faith into a work the whole theology of the Reformation protested.  (Bonar, ibid, Ch. 2)

Just as rest comes before work and supports all good work, so peace comes before holiness and supports all true holiness.  With new life, we have inherited holiness through Christ in us.  It is ours as surely as Christ is ours.  Just as any inheritance whether of wealth or ability can be squandered, so can the inheritance of holiness be wasted on us.  Such squandering would beg the question of whether or not we ever received the Holy One at all.  Our work in holiness speaks to us about our faith in the Holy One who has made his home in us.

The goal of such examination is not doubt, but certainty.  If our work in holiness is nothing but trouble, we may need to seek a proper resting place first.  If we are trying to build our holiness on sand, it would be better to know before the storms come.  The sure foundation is in Christ.  Not his work, his cross, his teaching, or his gifts.  In Christ himself and nowhere else, "abiding, living, and speaking in me, not through me or to me," as Luther says.

So we find ourselves to be temples of the Holy One, both individually and corporately.  We are made holy by his presence in us.  By resting in him, we find that his presence is not a passive thing, but active.  Jesus, unlike the Law, does not remain in a box behind a curtain.  Through his Spirit, he works out his holiness through the members of his body, which is both our bodies (1 Cor. 6) and our gathering of bodies as a church (1 Cor 3).  Both kinds of bodies belong to him.  We have been purchased and redeemed.  "The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body."

Holiness is one of the traits of a body that is inhabited with the new life of Christ.  It is one of the ways we come to recognize what this life really looks like.  It is obvious to those who seek it and confusing or repulsive to those who are passing it by.  Holiness will grow where it is planted.  Through trust the resistant ground is broken up and receives the peace and rest of Christ, the One who has done all the hard work and left us to reap the benefits.  We are disciples of holiness as we follow the Holy One, the Christ.

May Christ be our righteousness and holiness, making his home in us and with us.  May we rest in him through complete trust.  May his Holy Spirit inhabit our bodies teaching us the steps of holiness from the inside out.  We will be clumsy and fall, but may he give us the grace to get up and never give up.  Amen.

A Long Obedience: Worship that Rests

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work."  (Exodus 20:8-9)

 The Sabbath was created for man, not man for the Sabbath.  (Mark 2:22)

WORSHIP AS REST

God's command for rest on the Sabbath seems akin to a husband who "commands" his wife not to do anything while he takes care of dinner and kids on a day when she's sick or tired.  The holiness of such  rest is holiness that comes from faith and trust.  "Please trust me," he says, "I'll take care of everything."  Fortunately, God can do a better job that many of us husbands can.  The sentiment seems similar to me, though.

The danger of refusing such rest is not the same, however.  "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience."  (Hebrews 4:9-11)  This does not raise Sabbath-breaking to the height of ultimate sin.  Instead, Sabbath-breaking becomes a picture of a life oriented away from God.  A life without resting in God is a life without faith in God.

So I find Sabbath-keeping not merely a matter of going to church, nor of staying at home and recreating.  It is resting from my desires and seeking God's.  In a message to the people of God in a time in which they just practiced a religion and did not really seek God, Isaiah records God words:

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

    and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the Lord,

    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.  (Isaiah 58:13-14)

Again, it is easy to see this as a threat to "worship and honor God or else."  Perhaps, though, God is pleading with his people to come back and trust in him, seek his fullness and goodness, and ponder and reflect on his greatness and glory, but not for his good, but for ours.  Maybe we cannot make it without such rest.

WORSHIP AS AN APPETIZER

What does such rest bring?  Why would God be so insistent?  Eugene Peterson writes,

[One hour of] worship does not satisfy our hunger for God - it whets the appetite.  Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship - it deepens.  It overflows the hour and permeates the week.  The need is expressed in a desire for peace and security.  Our everyday needs are changed by the act of worship.  We are no longer living from hand to mouth, greedily scrambling through the human rat race to make the best we can out of a mean existence.  (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 56)

If what he says is true, then our everyday needs are changed by not participating in worship.  We will find ourselves "living from hand to mouth, greedily scrambling through the human rat race to make the best we can out of a mean existence."  I think he hits it pretty close to the mark.

Peterson describes our desire for peace as a desire for a "wholeness that results from God's will being completed in us, . . . the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates eternal life."  (56)  The desire for security

has nothing to do with insurance policies or large bank accounts or stockpiles of weapons.  The root meaning [of the Hebrew word] is leisure - the relaxed stance of one who knows that everything is all right because God is over us, with us, and for us in Jesus Christ.  The security of being at home in a history that has a cross at its center.  It is a leisure of the person who knows that every moment of our existence is at the disposal of God, lived under the mercy of God. (57)

A SHARPENED LIFE

Unfortunately, such wholeness and leisure are at odds with the lives most of us live in the secular and religious spheres.  The secular part of our lives are often engaged in frantic entertainment when work is put aside.  The religious part of our lives now looks surprisingly similar: entertainment and work with little time for a trusting rest that brings wholeness and that "relaxed stance."  How might we explain such wasted time to such a pragmatic society?  To the parts of myself that resist any waste of time?

Look at the mower in the summer's day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets.  He pauses in his labour - is he a sluggard?  He looks for a stone, and begins to draw up and down his scythe, with rink-atink, rink-atink, rink-atink.  Is that idle music - is he wasting precious moments?  How much he might have mowed while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe!  But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives strength to those long sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him.  (Charles Spurgeon, quoted in A Long Obedience, p. 57)

Lord, let me not become blunt with frantic and meaningless labor.  Let me be sharpened by spiritual worship, gathered with those who worship in truth.  I do not want the activity of worship, but one that acts as an appetizer to the meal of a life with you.  Amen.

Humility: Jesus' Inner Life - Doing What God Does

Not to us, O Lord, not to us
  but to your name be the glory
  because of your unfailing love and faithfulness.  (Psalm 115:1) 

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  (John 5:19)

In the Gospel of John we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us. Jesus speaks frequently of His relation to the Father, of the motives by which He is guided, of His consciousness of the power and spirit in which He acts.

Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of His relation to the Father, and how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself.

[Jesus' words] teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. It is this: He was nothing, that God might be all.

This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father's will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy.

His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, whatever men around might say of Him, or do to Him.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 3)

In the face of great art, great works of literature, great feats of strength and skill, and great acts of kindness I am sometimes brought into a sense of awe at what can be done by a person dedicated to such actions.  I think of myself as rather mediocre and even lazy.  My life can seem colorless and empty in the face of greatness.

Self-deprecation is not a virtue, but the feeling of awe which inspires me to live for something greater than just "getting by" can lead me to virtue.  Such is the humility of the psalmist (115:1) who gives glory to God and not himself.  The great feats of God are love and faithfulness.  By such actions, I am brought to my knees in amazement.  All the great feats of people never match the greatness of God, who, although greater than anyone, made himself less that everyone.  The incarnation of Christ shows this best.  May my awe of your greatness inspire a desire to join in your greatness by learning your humility, Lord.


Jesus' explanation of only doing what he sees the Father doing has typically only meant something about the unity of the Trinity to me.  I saw them as words explaining how the Son and the Father are one.  I had thought Jesus was merely proving his equality with his Father so he could show his authority over the Pharisees.  It sounded almost like he was saying, "Well, at least I am doing what God wants while you are not."

These are not small things.  Proof for the Trinity and Jesus' authority are entirely necessary for my faith.  However, Jesus did not come primarily to prove something or to show his authority.  He came so that I might have life and have it abundantly.  He came to set me free.  Free for what?  Free to live as he and the Father live.  Only God can be God to be sure, but he invites me to taste in the love and humility that make the Trinity so good.  In the end Jesus' words about only doing God's will are about what it means to really live.  Let me seek to do what you do, Lord, so that I might have life - real life.


Lately, I have been seeking peace.  Usually I equate peace with indifference or ease.  I think that I would be much more peaceful if I didn't care too much.  I think I would be more peaceful if I had some privacy and quiet or maybe a relaxing night with some friends.  I do not usually think that doing what God is doing would bring me peace.

What I think God is doing shows a lot of what I think about God.  If he is the cosmic police officer, then he is busy handing out tickets and punishing wrong-doing.  If he is the universal grandfather, he is gently sitting back watching his grandkids and giving them gifts while he allows someone or something else to parent them.  If he is a complete martyr, he is pleading for me to recognize his graciousness and goodness while not expecting much response from me.

What do I think God is doing?  One time I was trying to have a quiet time with God in the morning and my children were playing and laughing and making a racket.  I huffed off to my room by myself where I could concentrate.  I continued to have trouble hearing God and being with him.  Eventually I called out in frustration, "Where are you, Lord?"  He told me, "I'm playing with the kids.  What are you doing?"

It is not that God is merely playing all the time or that he is always doing something that I am not.  The point was that I would not find out what he is doing by being angry with my kids while doing something I deemed "good."  He still met me in my time with him and taught me how self-important I can become, but he also taught me that I need to stay near him and ask him in order to find out what he is doing and not just assume I know.

Much of what God has laid out for me to do is quite ordinary: raise kids, love my wife, do my job, help at home, daily seek his face, etc.  This is not merely "busy work" between what God is doing, but it is what God is doing.  He delights in the "small" things in themselves because they are what the "bigger" things are built with.  Actually, God's designation of what is small and big differs from mine often.  "What is highly valued among men is detestable to God." (Luke 16:15)

Humility enables me to see what God is doing.  Pride blinds me to God's desires and actions.  Really, pride is the condition of indifference or aversion to what God is doing.  Humility is a constant awareness of what God is doing with the intention of joining him.  Jesus could do what his Father was doing because he made it his job to know what God is doing.  He communed regularly with his Father and encouraged his disciples to do the same.

Pride narrows my view to my own actions and intentions.  I only see what I want and seek to get it at whatever cost.  Pride cannot see what anyone else is doing, only what how others are interfering with what I am doing.  Pride makes it impossible to do what other people are doing.  It only uses other people and God to further my own actions.

Humility broadens my view to see the actions and desires of God and other people.  It seeks to further others' desires and intentions.  Humility is impossible without a God who takes care of my needs and desires.  When I realize my place in God's heart and in God's kingdom, I find that I what to work for him and with him more than anything else.  This is humility.

Lord, I realize how much I struggle with pride when I seek to do what you are doing.  I worry about getting what I want.  I worry about missing out on good things.  I get frustrated when things don't go my way.  But peace and joy are found not with pride, but only with asking, seeking, and training to be like Jesus, who did nothing for himself, but always did what you wanted.  Only in you and with you will I find love, joy, and peace, and life.  Amen.


Do you trust God enough to do what he is doing?  Do you think that a life like Jesus would be full of peace and joy or cramped and dull?

Virtue and Peace

Devotional Classics, Thomas a Kempis, Excerpts from The Imitation of Christ

"No matter how hard we try, our lives will never be without strife and grief. Thus, we should not strive for a peace that is without temptation, or for a life that never feels adversity. Peace is not found by escaping temptations, but by being tried by them. We will have discovered peace when we have been tried and come through the trial of temptation." (p.186)

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Peace and trouble do not sound like they can coexist well. Somehow in my mind they seem more like opposites. Most often I pursue a peace that is an absence of trouble. I imagine a peace that is a trouble-free life.

Certainly, I did not get this from Jesus or his teaching. Jesus, the man of peace, faced many troubles. He also promised that I would faced troubles. Where does this idea, this hope come from, then?

I think part of it is a mistaken idea about spirituality. I imagine the "Nirvana" peace of losing self and complete complacency is floating around there somewhere. Peace in this light is a lack of fear, but also a lack of passion and concern. The peace that Jesus offers is different.

I guess from reading a Kempis, I find that peace is overcoming. Peace is not passive. It is a lack of fear and alarm, but not because desire has been denied or ignored, but because evil is overcome. Temptation and trial find their true faces when they are overcome by Jesus.

Actually, I find that trying to maintain a trouble-free peace guarantees fear and alarm. My hopes have always been dashed to the ground since trouble is part of this existence. Instead, a Kempis reminds me to go through trials with Jesus and overcome them with his good.

Peace accompanies virtue, but when I misunderstand peace, I find that virtue takes on a different face. Since seeking virtue brings trouble, trouble-free peace cannot be found. When following Jesus, trouble finds me, but remaining with him enables me to go through trials and temptations and stand. Then I find true peace.

Lord, I can see I have a long way to go in this, but I am excited about having a way to go! Please remind me each day to walk in this way. I want to overcome with you rather than live in fear and frustration. This peace is peace. Amen.

Today I have been facing troubles in the form of people frustrating me and opposing my good intentions. Rather than being so deeply troubled by this, I am seeking to overcome my worry about what people do or think around me and seek to overcome evil. The first evil God has shown me is my own frantic concern about what people think about me. I believe this step toward peace will also be a step toward loving goodness and virtue as they should be.

Prayer and Peace and Thankfulness

Devotional Classics, John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer

"O God my Creator and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except You accompany me with Your blessing. Let not the vigor and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. . . . Only in continued dependence on You, the Giver, can they be worthily enjoyed." (p.127)

"No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save.

But the eyes of Lord are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love." (Ps. 33:16-18)

Well-being is in the greeting of Paul's letters and also in the Jewish greeting of Shalom. It is the heart of peace. It is at the heart of what Julian of Norwich's words, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." This well-being is located in the "peace that passes understanding" (Php. 4).

My well-being, my peace is often located within pleasant turns of events. Narrow escapes and triumphant victories can heighten my sense of well-being into a sense of exultation, joy, and power. I suppose this is why various forms of amusement can help calm me. Even in the midst of a mundane life full of disappointments, we can have a feeling of triumph from a movie, or a sport (not so much my thing), or a video game (much more my thing). Somehow this leaves a shadow of well-being in my life.

This peace is part of the blessing that only God can give. I can pretend to have peace and approximate its presence through various means of food, entertainment, etc. But it is a shallow peace quickly dispelled when real trouble comes. Perhaps this is one of the best indicators of "depth" in my spiritual life: the thin ribbon of entertainment and escape is quickly cut in difficulty, while the cords of real peace are stretched, but not broken.

I am glad that God gives so much more good than bad in life. The proof of it is in the gospel. No evil can swallow up that goodness. It makes all other gifts worthy of enjoyment instead of dependence. They become evidences of God's love and grace, but not sources of his grace. I guess that is why I am not to depend too much on "earthly things," because of my propensity to depend on them.

So thankfulness in prayer is important. Thankfulness for all the wonderful things that I enjoy and take for granted. Thankfulness for things that are pleasant surprises. It can help keep my eyes on the Giver more than the gifts. It can keep my hope on the Unfailing Lover and Sustainer rather than on the means used to save me. It helps, but often the thanks stops short of true dependence and true hope in the Lord.

I find my peace is tested and proved not by how much I give thanks for the good things, but how much I give thanks in all things. I don't think I need to be thankful for pain and suffering exactly, but thankful that such things can lead me to deeper peace and joy if I walk through them with God. James says that we can consider them "pure joy" because of what they yield - perseverance and maturity.

It seems that thankfulness that yields deep peace is accompanied by worship, prayer, generosity, etc. There is no such thing as a truly thankful miser or thief. Consequently, there is no such thing as a peaceful miser or thief either. So my thankfulness is often fairly shallow, and therefore, so is my peace and well-being.

I do not long for a stoic life where I am unaffected by either good or bad and try to achieve some sense of "peace" by saying nothing really matters. Instead, I want my prayers to be full of life and passion, whether happiness or sadness, so that I can have true peace, knowing, seeing, and experiencing God's unfailing love in all things.

Indifference is profound unthankfulness in the face of the wonders and challenges of this life. I can't think of a parent who would enjoy a child who did not care whether they were given a hug or a slap. We would think something was wrong with them. Why else would Jesus give us this example of prayer: "Lead us not into trials, but deliver us from evil." I long for what is good and that is right. The only truly good is God himself.

Lord, let my prayers be filled with a thankfulness that sees gifts as doorways to praise and trials as doorways to a deeper love for you. Let me not neglect the moments that come - good or bad - and forget to enter into your unfailing love. Let my peace be deep as my thankfulness. Let my prayers be offered from my very bowels and not just from my lips because of this sense of thankfulness and well-being. Help me to grow up, Lord. Amen.

I sure have a long way to go in this. I'm afraid that I often act quite spoiled, forgetting much of God's goodness in the face of relatively small difficulties. I've been given much; I shudder to think what might be expected of me. In practice, I want to learn how to bring praise, prayer, celebration, and offerings whenever I am especially thankful or especially hurting. I believe this concrete action may help deepen my thankfulness and help me to enter more easily into that "peace that passes understanding."