“The secret to peace is to embrace your current circumstances as if you had chosen it.”
Mike Donehey from Tenth Avenue North
I remember hearing that and immediately thinking, “What a load of crap! So I just have to accept this terrible situation in life. NO! I don’t want this.”
I spent so much time fighting against my life circumstances because I didn’t want to accept the truth. The truth was that I was divorced, had lost my pastoral job and was now a house painter, driving a blue minivan. I didn’t choose any of this.
Why should I now live this way?
Here’s where peace can enter or be blocked from your life.
No, I didn’t choose this life so I can fight it until the day I die but that’s like swimming upriver. Yes, you can do it, but it’s exhausting.
Or I can accept life as it is, let go, and go where it takes me.
Swimming upriver your head is constantly down so you miss everything going on around you.
Floating down the river you can see everything. You can see places to get off and explore. You can see what’s ahead and get excited for what’s downriver.
This only happens if you give up trying to change the past and embrace your current circumstances.
Yes, this wasn’t the life that I had chosen but it was my life so I could either embrace it and find peace or continue to fight it and be frustrated.