Finding Peace In Life-Together

I want to be an autonomous, free, and independent being.

This means I want to have things my way. I want to be untouched and unbothered. I want to live freely in peace. But my desires always get shattered when someone bursts into my room for help, or when a Facebook message pings and gets me involved in someone else’s problems. Why can’t people just leave me alone?

I bet a lot of you can relate to how I feel. We all desire to live in peace from the plights of this world. We don’t want to be interrupted from anything, but life keeps constantly keeps us busy and troubled. We always bump into someone or something that keeps our hearts feeling restless.

There is also another dilemma. We want to have things our way. We always have specific wishes that seem likely to satisfy our hearts. But when these desires are not met, we respond with anger, depression, anxiety, and other negative feelings. Despite how hard we try to conceal our emotional responses, it’s difficult to deny that we all struggle with this dissatisfaction.

But let’s be honest here. That’s life. Life is always a battle between what we want and what we get. We probably would not have to deal with this issue if God had each given us our own island to live on. But God made us live amid people, and we all know that where there are people there are troubles. As long as we live here on earth, we will regularly face uninvited and unexpected situations that come without making any prior reservations.

Yes, we want to live as free and independent people unbothered by anything or anyone. But that is not reality, and God does not want us to live that way. God gave us life that we may live with each other, not alone. He specifically designed us in a way that we find peace in doing life together.

So, don’t be deceived. Out sinfulness lies to us and tells us that peace comes from an unbothered and untouched life, but true peace is found in relationships. As the Bible commands, when we love the Lord and our neighbor as He loved us first we will discover what it means to live in God’s peace as humans.

When we hide behind our computer monitors and cellphones seeking to be in peace, we will not find peace there. We will only discover loneliness and detachment that only causes us more mental distress. The irony of being alone is that it only helps us to consciously or unconsciously see that we need each other.

It seems like autumn is already here. And just as the seasons change without our consent, our situations change without ever asking us for permission. Our health deteriorates, relationships fail, we get involved in other people’s problems, etc. In the midst of these unwanted changes, there are two ways you can respond. Either you can put on the armor of selfishness and fight for your desires, or you can lay down yourself and patiently jump into these unexpected situations knowing that God wants you to be a bridge, not an island.

May the Lord leads us each day to understand that the life-together is better than the life-alone. May the Gospel helps DSYG grow into a relational ministry.