“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
John 14:27
There’s a story about two acrobats who made their living as entertainers travelling from village to village. They were always eager to develop new acrobatic feats. When working out a particularly difficult new move, one of the acrobats said to the other, “Now, when you are standing on my shoulders before making your flip, you look at and focus on me and I will look up at and focus on you. That way we will stay steady and make our act work.” However, his partner replied, “No! If we do that, we will surely wobble and sway, for we won’t know where we ourselves are standing. We will lose our own balance and I will fall! Rather, you focus on you and I will focus on me, and that way we will each find our stance in poise and stability. If we do this we will accomplish the greatest acrobatic feat of our lives!”
I love that story—it says a lot to me. Perhaps you’ve been feeling a little off balance lately. I have. It’s easy to get caught up in the immense energy waves of emotion, opinion, and information as our nation nears the upcoming election. How can we bring our greatest spiritual understanding and creative spiritual power to this time? I find it helpful to reflect on what Jesus told his disciples – I give you peace and it’s different from the way the outer world tells you to find peace. Like the first acrobat in the story, the material aspect of the world may tell us that the more we focus on outer things, like overconsuming news or heating up our emotions, the more power we will have to sway circumstances. Actually, that just gets us out of equilibrium and disconnected from ourselves. Jesus has a different idea. Like the second acrobat, he tells us to keep the focus on ourselves, on the spiritual life within us. He assures us that there is no need to let ourselves be upset or afraid, for there is powerful peace, reassuring peace, deep unalterable, unassailable peace that is always, always with us.
Anchor yourself in that invincible always present peace that lives within you. From that grounding, get information and feel your feelings as you choose. And keep returning your attention to the peace of the Christ in you. You can do that, for peace is who you are.
In the Love and Light of the Christ,
Rev. Anna
