My natural inclination is to assume that something must be wrong. Maybe it’s a lingering sense of impending doom. Maybe it’s my own version of the Sword of Damocles, always hanging overhead.
So I begin my mental inventory.
How do I feel?
How’s my family?
How is work?
How are things, really?
If every answer comes back good, I enjoy that realization for about a microsecond before another thought arrives:
“How long will the good last?”
Really, John? Is that truly how you’re going to experience the gift of today?
Lately, I’ve been trying a different approach.
What if things are good… simply because they are good?
What if I don’t need to search for the hidden problem behind every blessing?
If God is good, then I have every reason to rest in that goodness. The habit of scanning the horizon for trouble has stolen countless moments that were never meant to be feared. I have traveled to futures that never arrived and revisited pasts that no longer exist, while missing the only place where God has promised to meet me—the present moment.
Perhaps the search itself is the problem.
Maybe I don’t need to search for what is wrong. Maybe I need to arrive at what already is.
The essence of being requires no investigation. It is here. It is now.
I don’t have to hope for peace as though it were somewhere in the distance. Christ has already given it.
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
— John 14:27
His peace isn’t a reward for solving life’s mysteries. It is a gift to those willing to surrender their need to solve them.
Prayer
Father, help me simply be. Quiet the restless mind that is always searching for the next problem. Teach me to surrender instead of striving, to trust instead of anticipating fear. Remind me that I am held by Your everlasting love, that my soul is secure in You, and that Your presence is enough for this moment. Let me rest in the goodness that already is, knowing that You are good, today and forever.
Amen.
