“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.”
Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace
“Christ alone can bring lasting peace – peace with God – peace among men and nations – and peace within our hearts.”
Billy Graham
“Being content with what you have already is an art form that leads to a peace that can’t be replaced by anything else.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“Ultimately we have just one mortal duty, to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace and to reflect it toward others.”
Etty Hillesum
“He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.”
Hosea 6:2-3
MY PRAYER today is for the peace that keeps us still and complete in ourselves. Contentment is something that often catches up with us, when we slow down enough to receive it. We cheat ourselves in the rush of living. The tumult of emotions that we work up within us, as we get caught in the turmoil of acting and reacting to every need or situation, robs us of what is always ours.
I had been hoping to attend church on Sunday, but my husband insisted I join him fishing. What a magic day – the recharge to our connection, to God and the living world around us was a gift. In this beautiful day of sun and sea, I noticed two kinds of water. The incredible mirrored glass of a calm sea, and the ‘boil up’, a churning white-water frenzy of bait fish under the surface and birds working wildly. An amazing sight, but a reminder also how the surface always portrays what is happening underneath. Etty Hillesum stated, it was our mortal duty to create peaceful conditions within ourselves, in which we may then encompass others. We can never give what we do not have ourselves. We can never receive what we are not equipped to receive. However His peace is ours for the asking, and the finding. It renews like the new day when we give it a chance – it soothes and it reclaims, it heals and restores. It is grace.
These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write my Chaplaincy colleagues.
Living Tree Poetry 