Peace is a particularly tough idea for me to write about. I struggle with having peace in my heart. We all have areas to grow in; this is definitely mine. So I’m not writing here as a master of peace and contentment. Instead, I’m on the journey toward it and am writing as a sojourner. I follow the Prince of Peace while just trying to experience some peace.
Have you ever sat near a lake at sunrise? There is a stillness there. A wonderful, calming silence. The boats haven’t started stirring. The waves are non existent. A quiet, serene stillness. Water like a sheet of reflective glass mirroring the sky and the soul.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10 (ESV)
It’s in those moments of stillness that we can totally reflect on God, uninterrupted by the busyness of the world. We can be enveloped by his presence. Transformed. Prompted. Encouraged. Now, you may not have a lake, but you need to nurture that still place. A place where God's presence can feel real to you.
This is nice and all - essential for spiritual development, but what do we do when the waves are there? When the stillness eludes us? Because life sure seems more like the lake with raging waves than the calm stillness that is briefly there in the morning. There are storms. There are boaters. There are waves crashing into the shore slowly eroding it. What do we do in the midst of the waves?
There is a particular fascinating story of Jesus with his main followers. They were traveling together across the sea of Galilee when a storm arose. They were all freaking out. Kind of like we do when storms arise in our life. They should have got it. Jesus wasn't going to let them die in a storm. We should get it to, but we don't. Here's the key part of the story.
“'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:38b-41 (ESV)
Jesus, do you not care that we are perishing? I like the normal language that Eugene Peterson used in the Message. "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?"
I'm sure if we are honest with ourselves that we have prayed that way ourselves at time.
Jesus can rebuke the waves. Literal waves. So he can also bring stillness to our souls. The sad reality is that we don't always experience that. So what do we do until that truth becomes our reality?
Pretend. That’s right. Totally fake it. As a GenXer, we value authenticity. It's like our generation's rallying cry in the midst of untucked flannels while wrapping ourselves in a smothering and debilitating blanket of cynicism. Valuing authenticity is great and all. It really is, but there are times when we need to let our beliefs override our natural desires and start pretending in order to shape our heart into what God wants it to be. Pretending is actually training. So let’s start pretending. When the waves are crashing and we don't just feel like it, let's start pretending. When we the boat is rocking and Jesus is asleep, let's start pretending instead of freaking out.
We pastors do this all the time. We have a grumpy Sunday morning. Maybe a fight with our loved one. Maybe struggles with our kids in getting them loaded into the van. But then we have to get up there and give a sermon like we are in a good mood. And there is nothing wrong with that. We pretend because we know that we need to do what God wants us to do. The pulpit isn’t the time or the place for me to not be outwardly grumpy despite feeling grumpy inside.
Pretending isn’t only for pastors. All of us have to pretend at times too.
The odd thing about pretending is that when we acknowledge that we pretend, we are acknowledging that we are not perfect on the inside. We are acknowledging that our belief in how we are to behave is important. We are acknowledging that we are going to be faithful to what God wants over our feelings.
So start pretending. It’s liberating in a way. It’s not like you have to be perfect to start behaving in the right way. You don’t have to have perfect desires or perfect thoughts. Just enough of a belief about how you should love your neighbor, your enemy, or whatever else it is that you are putting off doing because your heart isn’t in the right place. You have to believe that what you should do or what you shouldn’t do is more important than what you feel like doing or not doing. Pretending allows you to do what’s right even when you're not feeling it. Pretending is being.
Here is the thing. When you pretend to be that which you want to be but don’t really feel like being, you are actually being the thing that you know you should be. Pretending is actually being. I often get told by people that they have trouble believing in God but want to. They can't figure out what that looks like. Well, just go love someone you wouldn't love. That is a way to believe in God. Just pretend and it will be.
Now, it is best to have our heart match up to our actions. I get that. This isn't a conversation about what is best. It's about when we don't really feel like it. When we are scared, discouraged, or destroyed. What do we do when our heart isn't in the best place? Until that perfect happens, I propose that we just pretend and do the right things. Pretend and avoid the wrong things. Your heart may not be into helping that person you're feeling tugged to help, do it anyway. Pretend to love them and do it. Your heart may not be into praying today. Pretend to want to do it and pray. Your heart may want to just lash out at someone. Pretend and be nice to them anyway. If you don't want to go to work tomorrow and do your job, pretend you want to anyway. Do the good that you know you should do even when your heart isn't into it. Do the good with a smile. Pretend.
To act like we are always in the mood to do what is right seems sort of foolish to me. We're not. Nobody is. But doing what is right is important enough that we should do it even when we aren't in the mood. If we do the good that we know we should with a grumpy face, it will nullify the good. So put the pretend face on and do the good.
When we deliberately choose to pretend (act in a way that our heart doesn't want), we are practicing a sincere faith. It takes a lot of faith to pretend. It takes a lot of faith to do what we know we should do even when we don't want to do it. In our insincerity our faith is sincere.
So take the step that you know you need to take, even if you don’t feel like taking it. You may have to pretend for a while. That’s okay. For some reason, we have been taught to stop pretending as we grow up. Instead, I think we would all be better off pretending a lot more. And as we pretend to love our enemies, we will actually start loving them internally. As we pretend to enjoy our job, we will actually start loving our job. As we pretend to spend time with God, we will actually be spending time with God. It’s time to recapture the abandoned childhood art of pretending.
Jesus taught, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3 ESV)
So let’s be like little children and enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now. If it takes a little pretending for a while before we see the things of God popping up all around us, well, let’s pretend. In the end, it will be worth it.
