Acceptance & Peace



How do you accept something when it is so hard?

 

How do you let go of something that seems so important or big?

 

How do we entrust our concerns, our lives into the hands of Another and go to sleep at night at peace?  

 

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I am a creature of resolution. I like completing projects. I like making lists and checking things off of them. I like things to be planned, accomplished, and completed. Done. Final. Known. Exacted. And to go as expected.

 

Um. . .but this can cause me problems.

 

It's not that being like I am is wrong. It's that it can get in the way when my Creator has other plans in mind and is working to accomplish something different, something more than I can see or conceive of at the moment.

 

Several years ago I was really struggling with where I was at in life. I was struggling with feeling less than, not enough, and I was feeling very cornered internally by all of the stress I was experiencing.

 

Eventually I had to make a choice.

 

Something had to change or I was just going to, I don't know, break down?

 

During that something-needs-to-change moment this Gem came up out of some unexpected spring in my soul to give life and peace:

 

I remember thinking "acceptance?!" How can I accept my circumstances. How can I accept what I am struggling with and what I am feeling. Wouldn't that be to "give in"?

I realized just the opposite was true. And that through accepting the plans of the Man behind all things -- who has my good in mind always -- a portal opened in my heart that allowed me to experience peace.

Peace in the middle of icky feelings, and deep worries, and feeling up against a wall from the stress of it all.

Something that really helped me give in to this kind of almost fanatical acceptance was the realization I did not have to be thankful FOR everything, but rather IN everything.

That God is after a particular attitude in us. . .

And an attitude of acceptance, coupled with trust in His plans and heart has equaled a whole lot of peace for me in times when peace seems impossible or like it may come across as me "not trying" or "caring".  

There are so many elephants we try and carry.

 

Why carry them when we have Someone whose shoulders are immeasurably stronger than ours and Who not only wants, but pleads with us to let Him bear the load of stress and leave the working out of all things to Him?