I've noticed something about myself that I find both fascinating and frustrating. Even when life is good, when there's nothing particularly wrong, my mind seems determined to find something that needs my attention. Something to fix, something to worry about, something that hasn't happened yet but certainly could.
It's as though I have a difficult time allowing myself to simply be at peace.
I can be surrounded by everything I once prayed for and still find myself mentally somewhere else. And when I really examine this habit, I have to ask myself: What exactly am I looking for?
Recently, I came across a question that stopped me in my tracks.
What if the peace you're searching for is being obscured by the very mind that's searching for it?
Think about that.
We convince ourselves that peace is waiting somewhere beyond our present circumstances. Once this problem is resolved, once the uncertainty disappears, then perhaps we can finally rest.
But what if the very act of searching keeps us from experiencing the peace God has already placed within us?
My mind rarely allows me to simply be. Give it a quiet moment, and it finds something to worry about. Give it a problem, and it demands a solution. Give it a solution, and before long, it invents another problem.
It's almost as though my mind fears the silence.
And perhaps that's because silence leaves us with something the ego cannot control: the presence of God.
The mind wants answers. God asks for faith.
The mind wants certainty. God asks for surrender.
The mind wants to know what's next. God asks us to be present.
How often do we pray for peace, only to return immediately to the thoughts that disturb it? We ask God to take our burdens, yet continue carrying them, examining them, and imagining everything that might go wrong.
We surrender with our words but resist with our minds.
I wonder how often God has answered my prayers for peace, but I was simply too consumed by my own thoughts to recognize His presence.
Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." — John 14:27
He never promised a life without difficulty. He offered peace independent of our circumstances.
Maybe our greatest spiritual challenge isn't learning how to find God, but becoming quiet enough to recognize that He was never absent.
Perhaps the next time our minds insist something is missing, we can resist the temptation to go searching.
Instead, we can become still. Not waiting for something to happen, not demanding an answer, but simply being present with the One who gave us life.
Because perhaps the peace we've been searching for isn't something we need to acquire. It's something we need to stop disturbing.
"Be still, and know that I am God." — Psalm 46:10
