A recurring comment I have gotten lately mentions the peace some people notice in the images shared here.  I have thought about this a great deal.  There IS great peace but I would add that it is also the very kind Jesus promised – not the kind the world usually refers to.  It has taken me a long time to understand the difference. 

"Even peace may be purchased at too high a price." – Benjamin Franklin

So often we confuse peace with with conflict avoidance.   That isn't real peace.  It is simply the refusal to acknowledge a problem and in fact creates exponentially more inner turmoil.  Part of cultivating real serenity  - for me – has been being very honest about what I am comfortable with and what I am not. What I can do, and what I truly feel I should not.  That is the first, essential step to peaceful living – honesty, as much with ourselves as with others. 

It can be very hard to know which response will result in true peace and healing because sometimes God asks us to be still, and allow him to be mightier than the storms which surround us.  Other times He says Arise, and walk. He gives you strong legs to replace those once paralyzed by fear and intimidation.  He leads you to a different place. Sometimes we are to remain and endure bravely and quietly, other times we are to shake the dust from our feet and move on. 

Peace is costly but it is worth the expense. – African Proverb

 It takes careful discernment coupled with sincere prayer to know what He is calling us to in a given situation.  But in the end we know.  It is a 'simple, not easy,' thing.  Sometimes the most difficult steps are taken with remarkable calm.  Conversely, what others around us assert should be easy leaves us with tremendous inner unrest.  And we just know.  

Blessed are the peacemakers.  – Mt 5:9

Peace is defined not as a gift of the Spirit, but a fruit borne through careful cultivation. It is not something you get but something you make.  That is where the blessing is promised. I have stopped waiting for it to just happen and tried to understand what had to change in my life for it to grow.  

Peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to cope with it. 

Be assured of this. We do not have a perfect life, but no doubt we the perfect life for us. Perfectly suited for our salvation.  Perfectly fitted with crosses which many would find unbearable to carry.  His simple – but never, never easy – plan for my life is indeed perfect. Resting in that knowledge brings true peace. Nothing else can. 

And I am not sure any of this makes sense to anyone else.  It is just what I have been thinking about lately.