Because both of my daughters were born in China, I tell them they are my favorite Chinese characters. You probably know that the written form of Chinese contains thousands of characters, some of which require dozens of brush strokes to create. What’s more, some of these characters are pictographs—pictorial representations of physical objects. The character for sage, for instance, is of particular interest. Consisting of a large ear and a small mouth, it implies that a wise person is someone who listens well and speaks little. When it comes to our search for peace, we should ask ourselves what life would be like if we developed larger ears and smaller mouths.

                Why is it sometimes so difficult to listen? Perhaps because we think we know more than we do. A child complains about her homework for the hundredth time and we tell her to get to work and stop being lazy. But what if her complaints are a symptom of a learning disability and not laziness? Have we really listened, allowing ourselves to consider that more might be going on than “meets the ear?”

                Some of us have difficulty listening because we have an urge to fix things. A wife tells her husband she feels down and he tells her she’s got to start exercising more regularly. A friend worries about her son’s inability to keep a job, and we tell her to stop worrying. She can’t do anything about it anyway. Often our advice goes nowhere. That’s because we’re either telling people what they already know or we’re offering advice they aren’t ready to hear. In such instances, we often withhold the thing they need the most—a listening ear.

To fine tune your listening skills, consider spending the next couple of days straining to hear what others are trying to say. Put down the phone, take a break from your computer, turn off those video games, and really listen to the people around you. Help them to experience more of God’s peace by giving them your full attention.

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I love smartphones and the apps that come with them. Want the news? Just click on an app and you will soon know what is going on in Aruba or Afghanistan. Looking for the best price? Simply scan the bar code. I can’t wait until someone develops an app that will cook dinner or clean the bathroom. But the app I really want, the one I would pay good money for, would be what I call the peace app. Feeling stressed? Just download it and you will feel as though you’re living at a spa. Having a hard time in a relationship? This app will smooth things out. You’ve got the peace app!
                Okay, enough of the ridiculous. When it comes to having peace, the only practical application I know of is faith. Faith enables us to stand up when we feel like lying down, to move forward when we want to run away. It’s what enables us to please God, because without faith we can’t begin to live the way he wants us to. The book of Hebrews tells us that faith “is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen” (11:1). Scripture goes on to say that by faith people have overthrown kingdoms, ruled with justice, received what God promised, quenched flames of fire, escaped death. It was by faith that their weakness was turned to strength (Hebrews 11:33-34). If we want to have peace, then we have to have faith.
                But faith isn’t a matter of “trying harder.” It is something supernatural, a gift from God to enable you to do what you cannot do on your own. It’s also a gift that has to be used. If you fail to exercise it, living by your own wits, you will find that faith becomes a shriveled, feeble thing, unable to support you when you need it.
                Ask God today to fill you with real faith, not in yourself, but in him. Remember what Jesus said: even mustard-seed sized faith, and that’s tiny, can do great things.

(Image courtesy of janineomg at flickr.com)

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Hurry never brings out the best in me. Heaven help anyone who gets between me and the goal I’m focused on achieving. Trying to squeeze in a trip to the store before picking my daughter up at school, I am tempted to speed. Waiting in line at the polls when I need to be home cooking dinner, I start complaining. Worried that my daughter will miss the school bus, I nag  her—hurry, hurry, hurry!
                        Several years ago, John Ortberg asked Dallas Willard for advice on how to grow spiritually. The advice Willard gave surprised him, because instead of laying out a complex set of instructions for what John should do, he simply said this: Eliminate all hurry from your life.
                        Several years ago I traveled to Greece. It was a fascinating trip despite the fact that there were several mishaps. One woman in our group lost her passport on the concourse in Detroit. Without it, she had to fly right back to Detroit from our stop in Munich, missing the entire trip, a thirtieth anniversary celebration for her and her husband. Another woman broke her ankle on a slippery side street in Athens. And a third person hit his head, shattering his glasses when he stumbled while sightseeing in Rhodes. After the trip, I kept hearing our tour guide’s voice in my mind. One of her favorite sayings continued to roll across my brain. “Slowly, slowly,” she would say, as she took us to one ancient site after another, attempting to explain the pace of historical change in that land. It occurred to me that “slowly, slowly” would have been a good mantra for the group to have adopted, perhaps helping us avoid at least some of the mishaps suffered along the way.
                        What’s your day like today? Filled with meetings? Scheduled to the max? Spinning out of control? Whatever your day, week, month, year, or life looks like right now, take a moment to think about how much more peace you would enjoy if you could find a way to make “slowly, slowly,” your own personal mantra.

(Image courtesy of markheybo at flickr.com)

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