Heaven on Earth
By Sherrill Schlimpert
Waking up in Paradise…I’ve longed for this for all of my 54 years! Finally, we achieved a trip to Hawaii for our 35th anniversary. Equally special was the idea of a fall vacation – our first as retired educators who have been in a classroom every autumn for the past 30 years! I’ve dreamed of what it must be like…to get up on a beautiful morning, stretch, and breathe in the cool breeze wafting through the curtains flowing around the opened door…then to throw on a billowy white blouse over my chemise and make my way out past the lagoon, to stroll upon the beach with the sun just peeking over to illuminate the endless rhythm of the ocean waves.
No longer am I dreaming – I have arrived!
But even as I sit with a perfect breeze on my shoulders and the sun warming my face, my feet are aching from the run through the Honolulu airport after a late flight, and my stomach is starting to growl for some nourishment. And, once again, I am reminded
that there is no heaven on earth. There is no place, no circumstance, no earthly reward that will gain me perfection on earth, though I may see beautiful glimpses.
For what I really long for is peace. Peace…mind still…awareness with no struggle…just a waiting…listening…a setting aside all thoughts…a cessation of the need to ponder the confusion that is life.
I’ve been there. Sometimes a place or a circumstance does help me find it - where my heart swells with thankfulness to its creator. I’ve found it often in a retreat setting where I can surrender, and be emptied - yet filled with a quiet knowing, a putting aside of the world, a sitting in God’s presence. But I never find it apart from God
I am there now. How do I stay? I must leave this earthly paradise to get back to the real world, but I can take this surrender with me. For true peace is surrender – a lying down of all – all of my thoughts, my passions, needs, relationships, hurts – at my savior’s feet. The problem is that I pick them all back up – my work, my family, my friends, my relationships, my health, my decisions. I think. I ponder. I struggle. My mind churns, seeks. And it is only in the seeking, when my mind rises up do I really rest and find peace. As Proverbs 23:7 tells us, “For as he thinketh in His heart, so is he.” Thinking my own thoughts do not provide the answer.
Of course my mind will constantly turn back to the world. Like the constancy of the sun setting each day, I humanly turn my eyes back to the worries of the earth. But I can lead a resurrected life! If I seek the light with the rising of the sun each day I can lift my arms in praise and let all burdens fall from my shoulders.
The only real place to find peace is to find God in your heart. “For He will keep in perfect peace whose mind is staid on Thee.” Isaiah 26:3
Copyright © November 2007 - Sherrill Schlimpert. All rights reserved.
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