Living for Others

Law of Stewardship

Law of Emotional Choice

Law of Human Dignity

Law of Present- Moment Living

Law of Esprit

Law of Mindfulness

Law of Forgiveness 

Law of Unconditional Love

Law of Personal Peace

LiveAbundantly.com
is a world wide web ministry of
Christ
Presbyterian
Church 
a center of faith 
for living abundantly

3400 State Road
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 
USA 19026 

Focus on Certain Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness:
Living in Prayer
   (The Law of Personal Peace)   

sermon from the pulpit of 
Christ Presbyterian Church                    
a center of faith for abundant living
The Reverend Clyde E. Griffith, pastor

    We seem to be a nation of worriers, don't we?  
There's an old Egyptian proverb that goes: 
    The worst things in life are these...
         To want for someone, who comes not
To try to please someone and to please not
To be in bed and to sleep not.
We know the scene, don't we?  Been there, done that, 
someone said.  We are getting comfortably settled into 
bed.  This may be the first still quiet moment of the 
day.  And it begins.  Slowly at first.  We recall 
something that happened, or should have happened but 
didn't, maybe it involves us, or maybe someone we know, 
and that reminds us of something else, and it picks up 
speed, and before long a whole parade of worries and 
frets are occupying the space between our ears.  What 
to do?  What to do?  What to do?

    We all worry, don't we?  We all worry a lot.  We 
worry about tomorrow. We worry about the house.  We 
worry about the money.  We worry about our health.  We 
worry about life passing us by.  We even worry about 
worry, don't we?  Sometimes it seems to be our chief 
occupation, doesn't it?  Especially in the dead of the 
night.  Worry keeps a lot of people awake.  And makes 
us anxious -- and unhealthy.
There is a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is set up in her 
psychiatric booth, and good ol' Charlie Brown is 
sitting there.  Lucy tells Charlie Brown that he 
worries too much.  She says: "No wonder your stomach 
hurts.  You got to stop all this silly worrying!"  And 
Charlie Brown says, "Well, how do I stop worrying?"  To 
which Lucy retorts, "That's your worry! Five cents, 
please." 

    A few years ago in the midst of rising interest 
rates and failing Savings and Loan banks unable to 
fulfill loan commitments, the editor of The New Yorker 
magazine interviewed a large Manhattan developer. 
During the course of the interview the editor asked the 
developer how he was able to sleep at night -- knowing 
that financial backing was so uncertain and imminent 
bankruptcy loomed over his head.  The developer said he 
slept like a baby.  The editor couldn't quite believe 
this developer could be so inhuman, so he challenged 
him.  The developer said, "Yes, I sleep like a baby 
every night.  I sleep soundly ... for about an hour, 
then I wake up and cry for an hour."  

    Many of us ruminate over the "what ifs" of life, 
don't we?  What if the car runs out of gas?  What if 
there's not enough money?  What if there was an 
accident?  What if we get sick and end up in the 
hospital?  What if we have to go to a nursing home?  
What if?  What if? What if?  [Been there?]  This 
reflects a fear of the future.  That's what worry is -- 
a fear of what may happen.

    Some of us tend to focus on the regrets of the past 
-- you know, the "if onlys".  If only I had better 
parents, then my life would have turned out better.  If 
only I took better care of myself, then I wouldn't be 
sick.  If only I lived somewhere else.  If only I had 
done things differently ... way back when.  If only.  
If only.  If only.    That "what ifs?" and the "if 
onlys", fear of the future and regrets of the past, 
work together to rob us of personal peace, rob us of 
our physical and mental health, and rob us of our 
spiritual health as well.

    A recent sociological study published by the 
authors of the best selling "Habits of the Heart,"  
asks the question: "Why, representing only 5 per cent 
of the world's population, do we consume more than 50 
per cent of the world's drugs?  Why do we spend $160 
billion a year on entertainment ... which diverts but 
on the whole does not challenge?  It would seem that 
the way we live creates so much anxiety that we spend 
enormous amounts of money and time, often at great 
expense to body and spirit, to drown out that anxiety, 
rather than focusing on the activities that allow us to 
be the active, happy, responsible people we really want 
to be."

    It really seems that we are at war with ourselves.  
We get angry over our mistakes, we resent our 
weaknesses, and we resist fulfilling our highest 
aspirations.  We seek relief from drugs and various 
forms of entertainment -- and we are willing to pay 
dearly for them. But, ultimately, they don't work, do 
they?  We are still anxious.  We still worry.  

    We hear the words of Jesus saying, "Don't worry."  
It's a matter of faith.  "Only people who don't know 
God are always worrying."

    A 90 year old man was noted for his good nature and 
good disposition, and when asked to what he attributed 
his good spirit, he said, "Well, I have it all figured 
out.  You know, of all the things I have worried about 
in my lifetime, only about 8 per cent ever came to 
pass.  So, I decided, why worry?  Because of 92 per 
cent of my fears fail to come true, I have at least 
enough faith to handle what's left."  [If 92 per cent 
of your fears fail to come true, can your faith handle 
the others?]

    There's old Chinese proverb that goes: "The legs of 
the stork are long, and the legs of the duck are short.  
You cannot shorten the legs of the stork, or lengthen 
the legs of the duck.  So, why worry?"

    "Don't worry about your life,"  Jesus says.  Have 
faith in God.  I have come that you may have abundant 
life.  The apostle Paul writes to the church people in 
Philippi, in the fourth chapter, "Don't worry about 
anything."  Paul knew that worry and anxiety are 
crippling and debilitating.  And he tells that there 
are two things we can do to overcome worry and anxiety:  
Paul tells us to pray, and to think.  Paul knows that 
prayer is a proven banisher of foreboding.  Worry won't 
occupy the same space as prayer.  He writes, "Let your 
worrying concerns be known to God."  And, then he says, 
"think".  Thinking provides a way out of a problem and 
through a bad circumstance.  Paul seems to be saying, 
As a person shares concerns with God in prayer, and 
thinks about what is true, honorable, just, pure, 
pleasing, and commendable, little room remains for 
worry.

    Pray about what's eating away at you.  And focus on 
positive thoughts.  That's what Paul tells us.  Do you 
remember the words to that favorite hymn:
         O what peace we often forfeit,
         O what needless pain we bear,
         All because we do not carry
         everything to God in prayer.
Paul says, when we do this [when we pray about things 
and focus on positive thoughts] we find an inner peace.  
We are no longer so anxious.  We no longer need to 
worry so much.  We know a peace which passes all human 
understanding.  As one translator phrases it, a peace 
"that transcends every human heart, surpassing all our 
dreams, performing more than what human plans can 
accomplish."

    Again, common among survivors of a terminal illness 
is this quality that can only be identified as inner 
peace.  Cancer survivor Greg Anderson devotes a chapter 
of his new book to what he calls The Law of Personal 
Peace.  He writes: "Personal peace is that inner, 
personal sense of emotional and spiritual well-being, 
the deep tranquility that comes when we disconnect from 
disquieting or threatening thoughts.... Personal Peace 
in the grounded and connected feeling when we let go of 
worry, pain, stress, and fear and become mindful of 
life's myriad wonders.... Personal peace is the 
knowledge that all is well, an understanding that God 
has everything under control, even when our world may 
seem ready to explode.  It comes when we mentally, 
emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes physically 
disengage ourselves from painful, dis-ease-producing 
entanglements with another person, with conflicts, or 
with our responsibilities.

    Personal peace taps into a power that is beyond us 
and that enables us to live better, to think better, to 
feel better, than we ever thought possible.  We live 
with a vision of hopefulness.  We transcend our 
physical circumstances, conditions, and frailties.  
They become less and less important -- and actually 
affect us less and less.

    The author of a recently published book tells how 
he made a list[?] of what he considered life's highest 
goods[?].  He came up with several pages of things like 
talent, power, success, riches, fame, health, friends,   
beauty, and so on.  He took the list to a sage, who, 
after reading it, took a pencil and drew a line through 
all these elements of a happy life and in their place 
wrote three words: peace of mind.

    I don't know for a fact that Greg Anderson ever 
read the words of St. Paul, but for himself, and for 
others with whom he has worked, the path to personal 
peace is prayer.  Through what he calls "prayerful 
mediation" we "shift our attention to the present 
moment" and "control our mind and spirit."  Prayer 
"brings us back home.  [Here] we can let go of our 
cares, and become open and aware of the divine 
presence."  For Greg Anderson, prayer is "essential in 
attaining and sustaining personal peace."

    But, understand, for Paul, and for Jesus, the peace 
that passes all understanding is not something we 
attain by praying.  It is not a reward for prayer.  But 
it is something we join, something we experience, 
something we discover -- when we pray [about what's 
eating away at us], when we focus on positive thoughts.  
When we engage in prayer we are connecting with the 
center of the whole cosmos, the ground of our very 
being, the consciousness of all the saints who have 
gone before.

    There is power in this personal peace.  People 
report enormous energy flowing from it.  "It is a 
body/mind/spirit state from which our highest, most 
creative actions flow."  As Greg Anderson avers, 
"Personal peace creates a state of being that provides 
maximum energy for whatever we choose to do.  And that 
energy is focused and effective because it comes from a 
peaceful center."  When we know personal peace our 
energy is focused and actually skyrockets.

    Personal peace seems to generate energy.  And we 
become less likely to waste our precious resources on 
worry, and regret, and blame, and indecision.  As 
survivors note, "this is a giant step toward wellness 
on the highest spiritual level."

    And personal peace actually seems to increase our 
energy.  When we know the peace that passes all human 
understanding, we are endowed with focused and newly 
generated energy.  "We are filled with a positive 
power, a spirit that energizes.  And as that energy is 
used for good, it increases.  It will meet all our 
needs, and flow to help others."

    Does this make any sense?  Some of you in this room 
know the truth of what I am saying, don't you?  But, 
does it make any sense?  Maybe it's not supposed to.  
Maybe it cannot be proven scientifically.  Maybe it's 
not rational -- in line with our lineal thinking.  But, 
it's Biblical.  Jesus said you can have abundant life.  
Don't worry about it.  When you really know God you can 
get beyond being worried and anxious about the future 
and the past.  Paul said, Don't worry about anything!  
You can know a peace of mind -- God's peace -- a peace 
that surpasses all human understanding -- a peace that 
transcends every human heart -- a peace that surpasses 
all our dreams.  You can know this peace by practicing 
two things: pray and focusing on positive thoughts.

    Friends, may you know and experience true personal 
peace.  Amen.

How to Live Healthier and Longer:
Focus on Living Certain Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness:
The Law of Life Mission (Living A Life of Purpose)
The Law of Service (Living for Others)
The Law of Stewardship
The Law of Emotional Choice
The Law of Human Dignity
The Law of Present-Moment Living
The Law of Esprit
The Law of Mindfulness
The Law of Forgiveness
The Law of Unconditional Love
The Law of Personal Peace

References:

The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness: Feel, Think, and Live Better Than You Ever Thought Possible
by Greg Anderson

Healing Wisdom: Insight, Wit and Inspiration for Anyone Facing Illness
by Greg Anderson

Journeys With the Cancer Conquerors: Mobilizing Mind and Spirit
by Greg Anderson

Sound Mind, Sound Body: A New Model for Lifelong Health
Dr. Kenneth Pelletier

Research Study: