Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to inner peace and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world. Some signs to look for:

1. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
2. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
3. A loss of interest in judging other people.
4. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
5. A loss of interest in conflict.
6. A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
7. Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
8. Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
9. Frequent attacks of smiling.
10. An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
11. An increased susceptibility to the love offered by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

I was walking down life’s highway a long time ago.
One day I saw a sign that read, “HEAVEN’S GROCERY STORE.”

As I got a little closer the door came open wide,
and when I came to myself I was standing there inside.

I saw a host of ANGELS standing everywhere.
One handed me a basket and said, “My child, shop with care.”

Everything a  Christian needed was in that store.
If you didn’t have enough room in your cart, you could always come back for more.

First, I got some PATIENCE: LOVE was in the same row.
Further down was UNDERSTANDING; you need that everywhere you go.

I got a box or two of wisdom, a bag or two of faith.
I couldn’t miss the HOLY SPIRIT– it was all over the place.

I stopped to get some STRENGTH and COURAGE to help me run this race.
By then my basket was getting full, but I remembered I needed some GRACE.

I didn’t forget SALVATION, for SALVATION was free,
so I tried to get  enough of that to save both you and me.

Then I started up to the counter to pay my grocery bill.
I thought I had most everything to do the MASTER’S will.

As I went up the aisle, I saw PRAYER: and I just had to put that in,
for I knew that when I stepped outside, I would run into sin.

PEACE and JOY were plentiful; they were last on the shelf.
SONG and PRAISE  were hanging near, so I just helped myself.

Then I said to the angel, “How much do I owe?”
He smiled and said, “Just  take them everywhere you go.”

Again, I smiled and said, “How much do I really owe?”
He smiled again and said, “MY CHILD, JESUS  PAID YOUR BILL A LONG, LONG TIME AGO.”

There is a loneliness about this place … this place of my choosing. Surrounded by the things of life, I have suddenly come face to face with the solitariness of life. One person, one life, one place, one God, one moment in time-solitary, alone, yet not alone.

God has chosen his way of filling this place and this space in my life with the “ordinariness” of life. How long has it been since I lost the sense of the wondrous, magnificent works of God? How long has it been since I have been excited about what God is doing before ray very eyes? How long has it been since God became ordinary?

How strange that the sun should become ordinary to me, that clouds, and rain, and snow, and sunshine have become common, pedestrian fare.

How strange that God should choose to speak through naked branches having neither bud nor bloom, that God should choose to utter sounds through rivers and streams frozen in place, in icicles glittering
promises of still more winter, still more discontent.

Or that God should choose to brave speaking through the commonplace roads of my existence and has made them icy, slippery, impassable, treacherous … sending me off in unknown directions, sliding, sometimes falling, meeting new hurt-in peculiar places. How strange of God to speak through the ordinariness of life. How strange.

I do not know  why I am here. I do not know what I am to do here. More to the point, I do not know how I got to this place, which is so far from where I started out, so far from the destination to which I was determined to go. I only know that I must follow that Voice, the Voice that speaks in tones that I am familiar with, tones that I have so often failed to listen to and failed often to understand or obey.

Could it be that I am in this lonely place, this solitary space, to wait again for the Empowering Presence?… to wait again for the Call that I alone am burdened to hear? … to wait again for that purifying, energizing, frightening fire that burns within?

I need to feel it again. I need to know that God’s fire is my fire. I desperately need to know that my loneliness is not permanent and that my solitariness is filled with the awesome purposefulness of God.

This moment, this hour, this time is not mine, it belongs to God. I am now wholly alone, wholly vulnerable, wholly available. Come, Holy Spirit, with wind and fire. Let your breath blow anew in my life. Penetrate my soul and my personality with the power of your touch. Broken, humbled, frightened, unsure of today and tomorrow … only sure that you are there. Come, Holy Spirit, use me now! Let the fire burn!