A Bee Line Toward Peace

The Apostle Paul writes of having been all things to all men. Shoot! That's what I feel like at the moment as Kwesi, my mom-in-law, our sons, and I venture up to NY for a few days.

I often weigh the odds around which role I prefer playing on a road trip … the driver, whose concerns are driving safely, not getting a ticket, and maybe stopping for gas … or the front seat passenger who's in charge of handing out the snacks, supplying the napkins for clean up, receiving the trash, running the in-car audio and video entertainment system, and applying slight or urgent pressure to the passenger side imaginary break when the driver gets too close to the car in front of yours … not to mention the whole process of thinking around packing up a family of four – two of whom are under the age of 12 (those of you with families larger than four, I'm not offended that you're rolling your eyes at me). Add to this a whiny 3 and a half year old who can't seem to understand that nap time has been stood up, and he and EVVVVVVERBODY else is PAYING FOR IT.

HAMMY MODE

As we prepared to leave and lock up the house, I opted to hit my HAMMY MODE button in order that I would not LOSE MY MIND and spazz. Hammy is the over excited, speed-of-light moving squirrel in the movie Over the Hedge who, in one scene, is sent over a hedge separating a wooded area from a residential area where, of course, humans live. He is sent over this hedge with the task of disarming the anti-vermin red laser alarm system in the front yard of a Neighborhood Home Owner Association President.

The plan is for Hammy to shut off the lasers so he and his posse of forgers can break into this overkill HomeOwner Association lady's house and steal her food.

Hammy is given just a swallow of soda, which amps him to a level of heightened ridiculousness, and he begins to race, pinball style, hither and yon between various assigned posts in the yard in order to somehow beat the lasers so he can shut them off. To drive the point of Hammy's quickness home to the viewer, DreamWorks shows Hammy, in the midst of the pace of all things around him, taking a pleasant stroll through this crazy lady's yard, seemingly unaware that he is in a life threatening situation in which he can get all his fur singed off by the demon red laser beams set up to not only trap vermin but to decapitate and cage them. Hammy wears this dumb looking smile on his face with his buck teeth resting on the outside of his mouth and is just as happy as pie, not bothered by the reality around him.

JUST TRYIN' TO LEAVE!!!

THIS, friends, is the mode I selected to jump right into as Kwesi and I moved busily outside of our home to pack the luggage, kids and car up to leave for NY. Now, I could have let the expectation to push out earlier than we managed to make me mad. I could have chosen to stay locked in CRAZY after telling my crying child to STOP IT and my older child to SHUT UP as he decided to provide commentary play-by-play of what the crying child was doing. However, I am working on abandoning myself and my flawed ways of doing things for how God wants me to handle things.

So, by the time we got to the end of the street, I had slipped into Hammy mode. I was resting in the fact that the chaotic had happened, was certainly at arms reach, and was ready to push in on me from all sides at any moment. But I decided to take a ride of obliviousness, in the peace afforded me through the knowledge that truly, I had nothing to complain about. After the sweat down my back, the constant bending in and out of the un-air conditioned car (which was not running yet) I had to do in order to get the kids' DVD system and earbuds sitchoo JUST PERFECT, and the fact that I felt Kwesi's frustration, which I could have chosen to take personally … I remembered the advice given by a friend for all seasons in that there is a split second in which we can choose between what's right and what's wrong. There is a way of escape—ALWAYS—that God provides His people so they choose the right thing.

HIM OVER ME

I remembered that these days, and those ahead, I will live in abandonment of me for HIM. I want all of life's circumstances to always find me at the point where the muscle memory of my faith disappoints the dark expectations of my enemies. When I have the choice ... I want it to be the God one. And here's the even cooler part ... when I fail to make the God choice, God sees me and is not surprised or anxious. Therefore, I refuse to take on the anxiety that trying to be perfect definitely brings (and shame on me for ever trying).

I am appreciative to God for His nature of assurance, and I, as one of His children, reap the benefit of having this very same nature in me. I capitalize on it and rest in the serenity that it can never actually be snatched from me (though I could choose to give it up through my thought life and what I allow into my heart).

Francesca Battistelli writes about needing the Lord because the crazy will kick in. I am of the same mind ...

#peace #chill