Posts Tagged: seeking and pursuing peace

“You Can do Something!”

On July 5, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

A friend of mine was telling me the other day that he hates the saying, “You can be anything you want to be.”  We usually say this to children or young people.  My friend thinks that this is a lie.  I agree.  Where we’re born, whether we’re male or female, born into wealth or poverty, the color of our skin—these things and thousands of others tend to limit our options.

But there is another lie that is equally pernicious: the lie that you can’t do anything worthwhile.  In one of my 12-step readings today, I read the following:

“Being the victim is, or was, uncomfortably familiar to many of us. Perhaps some of us are only now realizing we have choices, that we need not let life happen to us. Becoming responsible to ourselves, choosing behavior, beliefs, friends, activities, that please us, though unfamiliar at first, soon exhilarates us. The more choices we make, the more alive we feel. The more alive we feel, the healthier our choices.” (From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey)

And in my 3-minute retreat this morning, I read these words:

“Turn away from evil and do good;

            seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:15, English Standard Bible)

The key for all of us is to turn from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it.

Yesterday was an incredibly good day for me.  Why?  Because, I turned away from evil—not the evil in the world; only my own evil.  I did some good things.  I sought after and pursued peace, at least for the most part.

There is no reason that I can’t do the same today.  No, I can’t “be anything I want.”  But I can do something good. And if I do some good things, I will also be something good.

And if I seek and pursue peace, then peace might just find and overtake me.

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