“Surely there is sin and strife and nailbiting and chocolate-binging and snapping at those we love, but what would an undercurrent of peace with our lot . . . feel and look like? Try it on. This is the invitation of the other side of relinquishing our tightfisted grip on the limitless life we envision. Watchful, not vigilant: there’s just too much to see out there.”- Sara Hagerty
“We are God’s priority. To each of us he says, ‘What is my life is more important than you?”- Timothy Keller
Sara Hagerty concludes Chapter 7 of The Gift of Limitations with the observation that we possess an incessant drive to be someone’s priority. To find our forever home in someone we trust. So, for much of our adult life, God hedges us to that we might finally see only one:
- someone.
- family that will not disappoint.
- home that is forever safe.
Therefore, God teaches us watchfulness. That a world of beauty, story, and whispers of God lies within our reach. A watchfulness waiting to make this day rich and different from the last. And different from the next. However, when our eyes lock on what we can’t possess or what a season fails to bring, we find no room for watchfulness.
In conclusion, Sara encourages:
“But the Spirit helps us when we can’t get our minds around what it might mean to walk by the Spirit. He meets us where we are and in small ways. With a whispler. . . .
Interruptions to mental roadblocks, heart heaviness, and narratives we have nursed for all our days — this is the life in the Spirit. Jesus whispers. His Word interrupts our thoughts. Beauty and silence and diversion all as part of the story. . . .
Each morning the heavens are declaring a story of God, a story different from the one of lack or heaviness, discouragement, and dread. Every day there is another story being told — this is the life in the Spirit.”
Today’s question: What does an undercurrent of peace feel like for you? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Hover around the circumstances”
