Shellie Tomlinson’s books are an absolute hoot, and humor is good, good medicine for the soul. Especially as we enter the madness of midlife. This week’s conversation starter: “Has a time in your life ever driven you a little crazy?” hit me just where I live at the moment.I recently turned 41, and I have to say that life has been a bit nuts. When people ask me how I’m doing I say, “I feel like a snow globe that was tucked away in a drawer for a decade or so and now a toddler has pulled me out and won’t stop shaking me.”
There have been a lot of challenges and a lot of changes. My parents moved from across the state to around the corner and one of them has been quite ill, my eldest child has become an adolescent, my husband’s work has become a good deal more demanding, I’m in the process of changing publishers and we’ve felt a call to a new ministry at a new church. Most of this is exciting and just as it should be, but still, it’s a lot at once! And I’m sure those hormones (or lack thereof) are just a churning somewhere in my body making each event seem all the more daunting or monumental.
I’m clinging to the message of a wonderful sermon I heard a few weeks ago about Shalom. Shalom is a Hebrew word that means peace. It can be used as a greeting or a farewell, but it always means the same thing: May the peace that passes all understanding be yours.
Now, as the priest reminded me a few weeks ago, this is not a “Calgon, take me away!” or a “Serenity Now!” kind of peace. It’s better than that. It’s a complete peace in the midst of life’s madness. It’s a real wholeness, contentment, health, welfare, rest, fullness and most importantly Grace as the frenetic world spins round and round us.
Does this mean the chaos or the hurdles or the challenges will vanish? I don’t think so. But it does mean that God’s peace can be ours in the midst of them. It’s a promise. A promise that comes from the Prince of Peace. What a gift!
Words are powerful so let’s speak Shalom into each other’s lives this day. And let’s be sure to laugh at ourselves (as this image and post http://louisville.styleblueprint.com/fashion/wine-yoga-pants/about yoga pants a friend sent me did for me this weekend!) Aren’t our southern Mamas just horrified that we go out of the house “unfixed” nowadays? And aren’t we thrilled that by some sort of miraculous smoke and mirrors fashion creation that yoga pants can somehow flatter our midlife rear ends?
Shalomto all on the porch today!
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