How many of you are struggling today with life? Rest and relaxation have escaped your grasp and you are longing for relief. Your mind will not rest! The unknowns have overwhelmed you and you are confounded by the whole process of mentally resolving whatever is weighing on you. Preoccupation and worry have become your bedfellows and patience is a non-existent entity. Would a vacation from your troubles do it? Or maybe just a few hours alone, sitting on the warm sand at the beach? Whatever comes to mind with the word “escape” is where we are going this morning.
“I have been a long-distance runner for 6 years now. I run for the physical benefits, but even more for the mental benefits, a complete and total escape from my own thoughts. As I set off on my run early Tuesday morning, I found myself crippled with thoughts of uncertainty. As I began to feel like I couldn’t breathe, I walked a bit and then sat in the sand. My mind raced between focusing on the music playing loud in my ears and the beauty of the crashing waves in front of me. A woman walked past me, grinned, and then sat in the sand to my left. She introduced herself as Deception and proceeded to say, “I can see you are overwhelmed; it must be tough feeling like you can’t catch a break; everything just keeps going wrong.”
I looked at her in disbelief. I thought to myself, “what an intrusive comment to make”. I then said, “You’re right, I am feeling overwhelmed, but I have so much good I can be focusing on.” The silence was deafening, as I began to mentally list out the ways God has blessed me greatly.
A few minutes passed and another woman came walking up the shoreline. She, too, smiled at me and then, serenely sat down in the sand to my right. She introduced herself as Peace and then proceeded to say, “I can see that you are overwhelmed; you must find so much rest in knowing that God’s plans are currently at work and that even though you feel this way, you are exactly where He wants you to be.” I smiled at her and responded, “Thank you! That is a reminder my soul was craving to hear.”
Then a third voice rang through my head, “Trust me” it said, with complete and total calmness. I leaned forward expecting to see a third person coming to sit by me, but I saw no one. As I shifted my gaze from the ocean to my left and right sides, I saw no one.
Deception and Peace were not physical beings but rather the voices in my head. One fostering a mentality of self-pity and the other empowering me to lean into the Spirit. But who was the third?
The voice of God.
A voice so calm,
yet so powerful
that the other voices residing in my head were now silent.”
Most of us live our lives in “whirlwinds” of varying degrees of tolerance. My granddaughter, Alexandra Grace, has again captured the battle we face within our over-taxed minds. Deception is screaming at us from every side. God offers HIS peace to govern our lives, if we will let HIM. Col. 3: 15 The daily renewed mind, saturated in HIS Word, will lead us into peace that passes understanding in the midst of our chaotic lives.
I am submitting to that “still voice” this morning…
Will you?
Alexandra Grace graduated this past June, Summa Cum Laude in Business. She is pursuing her MBA from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The allegory was written by her for Professor Dracott at Biola University this past year.
