Often, we cause ourselves to become agitated and disturbed by trying to resolve everything by ourselves, when it would be more efficacious to remain peacefully before the gaze of God and to allow Him to act and work in us with His wisdom and power, which are infinitely superior to ours.

Today, I opened my birthday package from my mother to find Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Jacques Philippe, a book I had asked for years ago and actually forgotten I wanted. This gem from the first chapter spoke directly to the feelings of agitation and restlessness I've been experiencing lately. We all experience the same from time to time, no doubt. However, it really only exacerbates that feeling to try to imagine yourself resolving all your difficulties, forging ahead, MAKING things happen--it adds potential exhaustion and frustration to an already disturbed psyche, since deep down you know you may not be able to achieve your own ends. Who can? We are made to live in a world with worries too large for us to handle and problems too complex for us to solve, and this is so that we can rely solely and entirely upon God.