Greetings TSJ Friends,
Solomon chuckled last night and told SJ a true story about me . . . and my cell phone. Apparently SJ had asked Solomon why Ms. Margie was yelling at someone on the phone! At least this is what I imagined. And there just may be a lesson in my imagination and not only for myself but for others too . . .
I cannot deny it. I heard myself! I was shouting into my phone as I was talking to my son in Texas. In fact I was shouting as though my voice could be heard all the way from New York State to Texas.
Soon I stopped and shouted in the phone, “Can you hear me?”
Joe said, “I can hear you just fine, mom.”
You know what I was doing. I was shouting over the background noise that the earbuds were picking up from the environment that Joe was in. He happened to be in a store. And you know what? I heard it all. I heard a parent seemingly yelling at her child. I heard people asking for a price check and all kinds of conversation and loudspeaker announcements.
I heard a cacophony of noise. I tried speaking over it.
And I had trouble filtering that out when Joe was speaking. Not wanting to lose connection with my son, I shouted on- even though he offered to call back later. I was afraid something would keep us from talking later.
Because there is a difference between what we would prefer and especially what we long for in relationships with each other, ourselves and God, we far too often shout over the noise only to create more noise.
You have likely already figured out that I am talking about a spiritual reality. It is the difference between the reality of life on the ground versus Life in our spirit..
We long for peace.
It is hard to hear (with our “inner hearing” as Solomon calls our place of wisdom) messages of love, joy, hope and peace. It is also hard to filter out competing noises being shouted at us from all sides.
Yet in the realities of this time of year when we celebrate the arrival of one whom Christians (and many others) believe came to bring the world the message of love, hope, joy and Peace – such nonphysical realities are hard to find fully realize within our harried selves.
And the kind of Peace Christ came to bring is not found in the usual ways of domination, control and demand, but through personal transformation and discovery.
That is what makes it so hard for us humans to truly understand – even though we sing it loudly at this season of the year. We cannot orchestrate true peace. Not this kind of peace. We can only experience it by giving up the chase.
I was so anxious to settle for a faulty connection that I chose to shout over the competing noise.
It seems although we constantly hear songs of hope, joy, happiness and delight, we are prone to feel less peaceful and more stressed than ever.
I find it inspiring to remember that true peace comes from a place of deep trust that there is no interference in our true connection with God – except our own shouting.
Like Joe said, it just may be that God is saying, “I hear you just fine.”
And just maybe we need to step outside the noisy places (like Joe offered) even briefly if need be, to truly connect with the One whose offer for peace is different than we imagine or understand.
It is the kind of peace for the world that can only come about by individual transformation and renewal.
That is why the song writer said, “Let peace begin with me.”
I believe also, dear peeps, that the most competitive noise we have to our inner peace comes from our own inner voices.
Solomon is sitting with that smile of his that says, “Just maybe you are getting it one step at a time.”
Maybe we can remember that just for today the Shepherd of our hearts truly is hearing us and offers us Peace. . . .the inside out variety.
All is well even in our imperfect world.
Peace.
Margie
