I introduced a new game to my elementary kids at church one night. Each kid was given a large paper cup that they were supposed to balance on top of their head. The objective of the game was to try to be the last person remaining with a cup still on their head when the game was over. I told the kids that the winner of the game would receive a dollar bill as a reward from me. There were only 2 rules to the game:
1. You can not touch the cup, or hold the cup that is on your head. If you touch your own cup to keep it from falling off, you are out of the game.
2. You can use your hands to knock other kid’s cups off of their heads, but the movement of knocking other’s cups off their heads might make your cup fall off your head. So be careful!
Little did the kids know that they were guinea pigs in an experiment I was conducting. My hypothesis was that you could not win the game if your goal was to knock the cups off of other people’s heads. The only way you could win would be by focusing on balancing your own cup on your head.
The game began, and was quickly over. As I had predicted, it was a kid who quietly focused on balancing his cup on his own head that won the game. He didn’t participate in the action of knocking cups off other kids heads. He was focused on his own cup … and he was focused on winning the prize. I handed the winner the money, but wanted to verify the results of my “little test,” so they played the game again. The results of the second game were the same as the first. Another kid who stood by himself and focused on balancing his own cup won. He didn’t participate with the other kids who were going around knocking other people’s cups.
You know, there is a LOT of strife in our world today. There are a lot of angry people all around. Their anger stirs up anger in other people, and before you know it everybody has “lost their peace.” In order to maintain your own personal peace in life you have to stay focused. Some people would rather win an argument than have peace … but peace is the real prize.
I can feel the world pulling on me to enter “the fight,” to lose my temper, to say things and participate in things that will steal my peace. I can’t afford to lose my peace, though, so I don’t participate in the game of knocking other peoples opinions and ideas (no matter how ridiculous they might be.) Peace is the prize … and when I enter their arguments I let them take a PIECE OF MY PEACE. Jesus died to give me peace … I’m not going to LOSE it by trying to WIN a ridiculous argument.
Isaiah 26:3
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed [focused] on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
