TODAY'S PRAYER: PEACE IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN TRIUMPH
If we look, sermons are everywhere.
Formal and informal messages that can inspire, motivate and teach us.
I found mine today, surprisingly enough, in a golden buzzer clip from America’s Got Talent that popped through my Facebook feed:
It’s funny how some golden buzzers don’t just inspire but also make me teary eyed. This was one of them. It was a touching moment.
I’m not really sure why, I mean, I’ve seen martial art demonstrations before and while I liked them I didn’t tear up over them.
Maybe because they didn’t just put on a good exciting show but there was a sincerity to them that I find endearing.
Or maybe because they bowed.
I wish bowing were an American tradition.
I prefer it to shaking hands.
I find there to be a humility in bowing that one doesn't always find in handshaking.
Not always but most of the time.
Then they really moved me when they rolled out their banner message at the end of the performance - that did it for me.
It felt like one of those quiet Zen master monk messages - the depth of which sneaks up on you the more you contemplate it:
Peace is more precious than triumph.
Whew. Just reading that sentence makes the I want to win in me shake to its boots.
For many of us that competitive urge is deep in the root of our being as a seed of anxiety and unrest: Gotta win. Gotta overcome. Gotta be better than ___. Gotta, gotta, gotta...
We live so much of our lives as if it were a competition - within ourselves, our families, our communities and even beyond. And the stress eats away at the foundations of all those things. We even have a theory - survival of the fittest. We have momma bears and alpha males. And kids shaking in the corners!
Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us:
“Anxiety is the illness of our age. We worry about ourselves, our family, our friends, our work, and our state of the world. If we allow worry to fill our hearts, sooner or later we will get sick.”
Peace is more precious than triumph.
Sometimes the need to "triumph" can be a distraction: In John 8:59 we read that even for the master himself, Jesus, there was a time when he chose peace over triumph: "At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds."
There are a couple of other passages where seeing an angry mob or those who wanted to do him harm he picked another route.
Jesus had a mission and if something popped up not in alignment he did not stop and engage. He pivoted, shifted, turned and ran the other way. That had nothing to do with being weak or needing to prove or being afraid but everything to do with staying on track with what he was here to do.
We all have a purpose, a way in which we contribute to the world. Stay on purpose. However big or small. Maybe it’s making coffee or setting up chairs or helping clean up or just sitting at home by the phone to take that call.
Peace is more precious than triumph.
I invite you today to just sit with that. Say it to yourself as the day goes on.
"Peace is more precious than triumph.”
See if moments present themselves when you can pause and to yourself say “in this moment I choose peace” and disengage from, turn down the invitation to do battle at whatever level it presents itself. Then go about the rest of your day.
Peace.
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7 kjv)
Amen. Aho. Namste. Ase
*Youtube Clip Copyright belongs to America’s Got Talent 2021.