The thought of Your infinite serenity cheers me, For I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, But You are forever at perfect peace. (“Valley of Vision”)
My husband and I are opposites. While he happily snores away, without a care in the world, my mind races away. In the middle of the night, I try to produce a solution to my latest difficulty. I am a “moiler.”
The word “moiling” means to move around in confusion or agitation, Synonyms are to dig, drudge, grind, labor, toil, and travail. If there is a world record in moiling, I deserve it. I have the moiling gene and am proficient.
I often miss joy in life because I am continually moiling in the background. Type A personality that I am, I list all the things that can go wrong and all the things I can do to prevent them from going wrong. While my mind occupies itself, I pass over the joy and wonder of the moment.
When we lived in Illinois, I worked overtime in the moiling department. Looking back, I know I wanted to glimpse serenity during those years. I could not see it; I was too busy moiling about. Troubles multiplied the longer we lived in the Midwest. Illinois was hard.
Serenity finally began to arrive when I adopted a new habit. I would get up at 5 AM and go for exceedingly long walks on the dark streets of our town, Zion, IL. During those rambles I would finally quiet down long enough for God to get a word in edge wise.
God has a lot to say, however up to that point my listening skills were well below par. I just wanted Him to hear all my anguish, fears and sorrows and to make them go away. Serenity does not come from throwing a tantrum against God, people and circumstances.
Gradually, serenity began to accompany me in the quiet, dark streets of Zion. It was ironic. Every couple blocks I passed police cars. Zion was a small town, yet so crime-ridden that it had its own swat team. The serenity did not come from the presence and protection of police cars. Serenity came from the conversations in which I finally let God speak. He is quite good at speaking when one stops occupying all the airtime.
As I finally surrendered and accepted God’s plan for my life, regardless of how complicated it appeared, I discovered His calm and peace. I began to discover His serenity.
- “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3).
- “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).
- “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
- “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1).
- “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).
