Practicing God's Peace (Part E.)

And finally after navigating the P.E.A.C. of the word peace we reach the final letter-- E.  I like to think of E as representing the word excellence.  At first it seems kind of a strange to equate excellence with peace right?  Excellence is one of those really ambiguous words that means so many different things to so many different people.  After all, your definition of excellence is not necessarily my definition of excellence.  It's a rather subjective assessment.

What I do know about excellence is this--it's really difficult to be consistent in it because of two main reasons: laziness and distraction.  Many people enjoy bursts and spurts of excellence in their life only to settle for apathy and stagnation after a short-lived surge of inspiration.  I like to think of peace as being the groundwork necessary to experience on-going excellence.  Notice I didn't say that peace is the only factor in this equation.  Obviously, there are many different aspects of excellence: accountability, vision, inspiration, confidence, creativity etc..  All of these are important.  Yet, without peace in our hearts and minds it is virtually Impossible with a capital "I" to experience excellence.

Peace keeps us focused on who we are called to be, what we are called to do, and the methodology/vision necessary for making it a reality.  Take away someone's sense of peace and they soon get massively distracted trying to create a false sense of well-being and tranquility in their life.  I know it sounds strange but when do you do your best work? When you are under massive stress or when you are free to be creative and resourceful?  Obviously, a small amount of stress can actually facilitate creativity. My contention would be though that it is possible to navigate small amounts of stress while being at peace.  What makes stress so stressful is the very fact that peace has long since disappeared.

Many great leaders have fallen at this very point- they make decisions based on pressures, stresses, and external situations beyond their control that have affected their inner judgement resulting in a departure from the excellence they have demonstrated consistently.  I have seen it happen often.  The point I'm making is that peace is like a foundation for walking in excellence.  Peace keeps us in the place of vision, it anchors us to the place of confidence, it releases us into the place of creativity, etc..   Without peace people languish;  with peace people thrive.  

The Bible says that Daniel had a spirit of excellence about him.  So much so that he was quickly promoted to be the top official in the entire empire.  There are many factors that contributed to his excellence.  One of these was peace.  Just a few verses after mentioning his excellence in Daniel 6, the Word tells us that Daniel is thrown into the lions den.  Of great interest to me is that he fell asleep! I have spent many a night in the wild places of East Africa with lions nearby.  I remember one night when a male was about 3 miles away.  He roared every half hour or so.  Every hair on my body stood on end even though I was in the safety of a luxury tented camp. Needless to say: not much sleep that night.   As to how Daniel fell asleep laying next to these big kitties can only be attributed to the fact that he walked in a great amount of peace.

All of us were created to walk in excellence like Daniel. All of us will need the same underlying current of peace in our lives.  Jesus provides it freely and graciously as we learn to surrender and submit to His leadership and Lordship in our lives.   Do you want greater excellence in your life?  Go to the place of surrender, the cross, and find His peace.  It will propel you farther that you ever thought possible.