Your Peace Doesn't Need Protecting
Self-care is an excuse
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands”
Isaiah 55:12
Protect your peace
On the surface this phrase seems pretty innocuous. It is displayed to us as a way to keep a sense calm central in your life; to put mindfulness and harmony at the forefront. It’s implied that protecting our peace is a way to cast out the negative and welcome the serene. Do this and you’ll be separating yourself from societal pressures like comparison, the negative opinions of others, and toxicity. Do this, and you’ll be happy.
What. A. Crock.
This movement is undoubtedly one of the most disgusting and damaging trends of our very online era. What this so-called peace protecting really is is blatant, unapologetic, encouraged selfishness wrapped up in comfortable self-care lingo that makes everyone feel like it’s something to be proud of. Proponents of this idea strongly encourage doing tremendously brave things like saying no if it doesn’t vibe with your day, canceling plans if it’s not super well-timed, changing your mind because you can, and cutting out anything (or anyone) that gives you a moment of inconvenience or causes a second of uncomfiness. And we ask ourselves why we feel so empty despite filling our free time with every luxury known to man.
This peace you’re after, this serenity you long for will not be found this way. No matter how many people you create “boundaries” from, candle-lit bubble baths you take, hot girl walks you go on or uncomfortable situations you dodge tranquility will continue to remain elusive.
Because guess what? These choices don’t make you brave; they make you egocentric.
It saddens me, the world we live in now. Narcissism under the guise of self-care has taken the place of thoughtfulness and generosity. This me-first movement has created a generation dangerously deficient in empathy. The “fill your own cup first” people are promoting avoidance and giving a free pass to unaccountability. Now we’re encouraged to block, delete, cancel, avoid, and disconnect at our own convenience in order to remain balanced. We’re told that nothing is more important than our personal happiness. Today, extra effort is hard and caring is cringe. Suddenly, a check-in text is considered sufficient when a warm hug, homemade meal, and hospital visit would be better. A half-meant “sorry to hear that” is more convenient than a “let me help.” A double tap is perfectly acceptable where a thoughtful note of congratulations was once the norm. To hold someone’s hand through a fiery trial is an over-commitment and to help carry another’s burden is a disruption. Holding someone close when they’re ugly crying is too awkward. We’re told our effort is something to be earned; not freely given.
Peace is not something we can create, earn, beg, or borrow for ourselves. It’s not something we get by doing less, doing more, or cutting out. It is a precious gift generously given at our humble request by the One who can number the hairs on our heads.
It is something that we are free to possess; not because of what we are doing but despite what we are doing.
His peace is not something that only shows up in the absence of trouble but even in the valley of the shadow. To think, we are being encouraged to claim that we have the power to protect our own peace. How incredibly bold.
We are here to love hard and long and fiercely because that is what we are made for; because that is how we are loved by Him. We are here to put ourselves out for others at the expense of ourselves because that’s what He would and did do with His own blood. We are here to consider everyone else first and ourselves last; not for a heavenly reward but for the sheer joy of giving. In this very modern, very comfortable world we live in inconvenience should never be an excuse. Our routines are for breaking. Our time is not our own (and how very short that time is.)
So my friends may I encourage you today to act on every generous thought that you possibly can? If you think it, do it. Don’t let it leave your mind, dismiss it as too much, or save it for later. Do it even if it’s uncomfortable, even if someone is crying on your shoulder without wiping their nose, even if it’s hard. Peace will be present through all these things and your life will be full not because of what you protected yourself from but what you put yourself into. It is these very human moments that make life worth living.
John 15:3 says:
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Self-sacrifice is the highest form of love. It is what He did for us and what he asks us to do for each other.
I ask you, when we finally get to those long awaited pearly gates and are confronted with our lives will He commend us on how we looked out for our own selves?
……Methinks not.
Wow……….. ♥️