How can I find peace while life is still stressful?
The World Inside Us
Each of us carries a world of memories, feelings, fears, and hopes. I’m still learning how life with Jesus changes the place I live from inside.
Rick Hesse ·
Everyone is a world unto themselves.
I have been thinking about that for a long time. What we see, hear, feel, and remember becomes part of a world inside us. Two people can be in the same room and experience what is happening very differently.
I see life through what I have lived. You see it through what you have lived. There are things inside each of us that another person cannot fully see.
Peace has been on my mind too.
What does it feel like to have peace and live from a peaceful way of thinking? Life is stressful for everybody, though in different ways. I have spent a lifetime asking that question.
I think about what comes into my mind from outside: other people’s words, memories, news, religious expectations, worries about what might happen next. Some things pass through. Some settle in and become part of how I see myself and the people around me.
I have lived with harsh judgments about myself. I know how those judgments can keep repeating until they sound like the whole truth about a person.
My relationship with Jesus has slowly changed how I understand my life. There are memories I see differently now than I did years ago. There are things I once felt certain about that I continue to question.
One of the questions I’ve asked God most often is, “Why?”
Why did I think that way? Why did I understand something so differently? Why did it take me so long to recognize what was happening inside me?
I think about my children asking, “Why, Daddy?” I kept trying to answer because I wanted to make room for their thinking. I have brought my own questions to the Father in much the same way.
The words I speak belong in this picture too, including the words I speak to myself. They can keep feeding the way I already see, or help me notice something I was missing.
I’m describing something I continue to discover in my own life. There are hurts and feelings a person cannot simply choose away. I can’t tell someone else how quickly peace should come.
I can tell you that Jesus has been changing the man who is looking. My past is still my past. My understanding keeps growing.
And I’m still asking what it means to live from a more peaceful place inside.
This is what I’m beginning to see in my own life. You’re welcome to take your time with it.
Let's talk about this
I have walked with Jesus for 50 years, and I am still learning. Some of my deepest lessons have come through failure and pain, where I have come to see His grace and mercy more clearly.
How does this connect with your own life or relationship with Jesus? Your questions and experiences are welcome, even when you see things differently.
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