Two Very Different Approaches:
Pressurized Striving
Living from the Place of Peace.
The Place of Peace Reminds Me Who I Am
False Identity Narratives
I am What I Have
I am What I Do
I am What People Think
I am What I've Been Through
The Place of Peace Reminds Me How I'm Made
Spiritual Love Languages
Heart - Passionate
Soul - Contemplative
Mind - Intellectual
Strength - Activist
The Place of Peace Reminds Me Who's in Charge.
#alivewesleyanchurch
For the latest sermons, stories, & training: https://alivewesleyan.com/sermons/
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Two Very Different Approaches:
Pressurized Striving
Living from the Place of Peace.
The Place of Peace Reminds Me Who I Am
False Identity Narratives
I am What I Have
I am What I Do
I am What People Think
I am What I've Been Through
The Place of Peace Reminds Me How I'm Made
Spiritual Love Languages
Heart - Passionate
Soul - Contemplative
Mind - Intellectual
Strength - Activist
The Place of Peace Reminds Me Who's in Charge.
#alivewesleyanchurch
For the latest sermons, stories, & training: https://alivewesleyan.com/sermons/
STAY CONNECTED:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALIVEWesleyan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ALIVEwesleyan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alivewesleyan/
Website: https://alivewesleyan.com
Newsletter: https://alivewesleyan.info/weeklyupdate
This morning. You can be proud as a church. Maybe pat yourself on the back was when a, you're being represented at the international conference of the Wesleyan Church. Pastor Tom as a delegate there and Heather and some of our team have traveled there to help lead worship and so we are so proud of them and they are really suffering because the international conference is in Barbados this year. I know what a tough, a tough trip, but we really are so proud of them and coming to share with us this morning we have Mark Wilson and he was a pastor for 26 years and is now a professor at southern Wesleyan University and helping to train young people, the next church leaders and he's also a member of our church and an incredible friend and if you know him, you know that he loves people and so we are so excited that you're here with us today and if you would help to welcome mark is he comes to share with us this morning.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:boy, what a joy to be with you today. Mother's Day. Wow, that's great. I love this church. Love Pastor Tom and the staff. What a wonderful, Wonderful Church family. We have an a joy to be able to speak on mother's Day. See for 26 years I, I did mother's Day sermons and I thought, well I'm not going to get to do them anymore and, and here I am, I get to do it with you and this. Awesome, awesome. So treat Mama, right. Treat her rate. Kind of like the one family, the, they said, mom, guess what? We've got a gift for you. You don't have to do any dishes today. She goes, well thank you children. That's so nice. Yep. We're just going to leave him in the sink and you can do them tomorrow. No, I noticed that the series that we're in is called Demo Day. And Tom, when he called me and asked if I could do this, he said, you know, we're doing this through demo day and I'm trying to think now, how do you fit mother's Day and Demo Day together? And I just couldn't get over this image of granny with a sledge hammer. And I thought, I don't think that's going to work. So I, I asked, uh, pastor Thomas said, can I kind of divert from that and we give back to the demolition next week? And he said, sure. And that's no problem at all. So we are not demoing, um, today we're going to do something different. There was a, a girl that her, her mother was always frazzled, just always uptight about stuffs. So much stress going on in her life. She was always exhausted and weary, worn out. She was always complaining, man, I just need some rest and Matt can I just have some peace and quiet. And so this, uh, her daughter decides to get her a gift for mother's Day and she looked all over, found the perfect gift. It was at the florist shop. She, she brought it to my, hear it as Mama. It was a bouquet of flowers with a big pink on it that said, rest in peace. Now that's the perfect gift for us. Stressed out Mama, don't you think? And I have a hunch that there is somebody here today. In fact, probably a good number of people here today that you could use a gift like that. Because when you, when you think about the way life is right now, I mean, it's stressing, you know, just lots of stuff over, committed, overwhelmed, exhausted, just so many things coming in. Like you're playing whack a mole and maybe you're the mall. I mean, just lots of stuff happening in your life and you're having struggled to figure this out and you're desperately are longing for some rest and some peas. Now, there are others here that your life is filled with tranquility, piece of cake, plenty of breathing space, plenty of space in your life. You know, it's, it's all calm and peachy keen. If that's the case for you, you can just take a nap right now. Just go to sleep. The, that says fine, you can rest in peace. But for the rest of them, hopefully what I have to say today will be helpful. Uh, as we take a look at what it means to find this place. Isn't it interesting that in our society, in our culture today, with all of these time saving gadgets that we now have in modern technology, you would think that our lives would be less complicated than we would have more time. But have you found that there's less and less time on your hands than what you had before? And so we have to figure this out. How can we handle when all of these things are coming at us from every which way? Now this isn't a brand new problem by the way. I mean it happened a long, long time ago, like almost 3000 years ago. It was going on and we see this with the Prophet Isaiah and he writes about this in Isaiah Chapter 28 now he's talking to a freemium. The tribe of Ephraim, the train of ethereum at another place in the Bible is called the half baked cake. Anybody here ever had half big pancakes? I've made a few of those myself. You know, like the heat's on way too high. It's just being overdone underneath burning up and on the top it's under die and anything like that. And well, he said that's what you are. If you're a half baked pancake, you're burning up underneath and your undone on top and you're there. There are a lot of people. That's the way they live their life, that they're, the pressure's on way too high. They're burning out on one side and they're undone on the other and the problem is we're undone on the wrong side. The wrong things are left undone and so this is a prophecy from Isaiah two two Ephraim, the undone half pancake it is for is for these people. Is this, do this, do that. A rule for this, a rule for that, a little here, a little there, just doo, Doo, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo crash Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo crash. It goes as well. Very well. Then if that's the way you really want it, I didn't make you that way. I didn't design you to live that way, but wow. If that's the way you want it, one with foreign lips and strange tongues, God will speak to this. People like, I'm going to use just the craziest things and I'm going to speak to you. These people, John Home, he said, this is the resting place right over here. This is the place of rest. Let the weary rest. This is the place of repose over here, but you're not listening. They won't listen. God's given it to them, but they're not listening. Is this okay? Well, if that's really the way you want it, well then the word of the Lord for you will be, go ahead. Do this. Do that. A rule for this one, rule for that, a little here, a little there so that as they go, they'll fall backwards and there'll be injured and snared and captured.
Speaker 2:Yeah,
Speaker 3:and when we live like that, when we live in this hamster wheel of life and we're living in the constantly overwhelmed, we're going to end up finding it. A trap will be captured and will fall backwards. Isn't there another way than that? There's gotta be a better way than living like that. I mean, we all long for that. We, we know that there's gotta be, there's gotta be a better path. And Isaiah chapter 32 describe some other people who have found that better path. These people live in Jerusalem, the city of peace. It's the tribe of Judah. No, not everybody who lived there had this blessing, but there were some who did. And maybe there are some today that you need this blessing you've been in, in that rat race. You know the problem with the rat race is if you win it, you're still a rat and you're on that hamster wheel. Here's what they say. Here's what God said to them. The blessing, my people will live in peaceful dwelling places and secure homes in undisturbed places of rest. And even though hell flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely. Oh, how blessed you will be. You'll be sowing your seed by every stream, letting your cattle and your donkeys range free. So these people have problems, they've got all kinds of issues. The hail was coming down like just bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. The city is falling down. And in fact there's one translation. This is when the low places are brought low, when you're going through the low, low times. So when you're overwhelmed, stuff's coming in at you and it's under. You know what? It doesn't matter how deep the water is. Your boat is in. What matters is how much water is inside of your boa pass the issue. These people have found it. Do you see? There are two very different approaches to very different perspectives. The first one is, is the path of pressurized striving, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo crash, and the other one is living in the place
Speaker 4:of peace.
Speaker 3:Which one would you rather have? Which way would you rather live? I would hide. I have a hunch that everybody here will say a lot. I'd like the peace path, please. I don't want the other. I don't want to be like that, but yet we live that way. Let me tell you what the place of peace is. It can be summed up in three little statements.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Kathleen and I started celebrate recovery up at the church where we came from. That was the best thing we ever did. It was the best, safest, most wonderful groups wherever a part of in our whole lives. And the first three steps that we taught people, they're very simple and it goes like this.
Speaker 4:I can't, God, can I let him? I can't. God, Can I? I'll let him.
Speaker 3:Could you do that with me right now and say it with me? Ready? I can.
Speaker 4:God, can I let him that it's the place of peace. That's the place of bees
Speaker 3:when we're trying to control it all and manipulate the outcomes and make things happen. Well, we can't do it. It doesn't work. I can't, I can't control how the things work out. I just can't. I can't control other people. Okay? You can't either fact, I looked in the Bible for where it is. You're supposed to control other people. I couldn't find it. There was only one person in the Bible says you're supposed to control. You only do that is yourself, and that is a fruit of the spirit. So what? We're even that one. You can't even do without the Holy Spirit doing the work. Why do we try to control people? Why do I try to control outcomes? That's the old way, the half big pancake way that that's the way that word
Speaker 4:I can't, God can and I'll let him
Speaker 3:and when we find that place of peace, oh, something beautiful happens. When I find the place of peace, it reminds me who I am here reminds me who I am. When I'm in stinking thinking, when I am in that hamster wheel, I forget who I really am and every one of us, we have a false narrative that would go to when we're not thinking straight. You know when we need a checkup from the neck up, when we're, when we're consumed by this stinking thinking. There's, there's, there's a false narratives. False stories. False. True, true. I mean we think they're true but they're not true and we don't even intentionally think about it. We just live it. And let me just give you four of these. These are, these are not what we are, but sometimes we think we are that like the first one is I am what I have. I have what I have. If I just have enough stuff, if I have a better house, if I had a nice car, if I have good clothes, well then that makes me worthwhile. That makes me valuable. Well, that's not true and that's not the way to happiness either. It's really not. Oh, it's Kinda nice to have some money, but money doesn't buy you any happiness. Believe me. Uh, I read a study of the Forbes 400 richest people. They did a satisfaction of life survey with those guys, and then they compared it with a village in Kenya and then the intuit in Greenland, Iceland, and you want it, they found there was zero discernible difference between any of the, like the guy that was the fortune 500 CEO, that guy had had no more happiness than an annual who survived on whale blubber. And those guys didn't have the Internet either. Well, maybe that contributed to their happiness, right? No, it's not what you have. It's not the treasure you have in the bank is the treasure you have in your heart. The, the, the, the treasures beyond this earth, eternal treasures. Those are the ones that give you happiness. Here's another false narrative. I am what I do. I am what I do. And you do this a lot, don't we? Like we, we, we identify ourselves by what we do. And when I left being a pastor and I became a professor, that was, uh, an identity thing for me. It was really hard because for so many years I was, that was what I did and I am what I do and I really had to struggle through what does that look like? What, what am I know? In fact, even today, sometimes I say I'm still a pastor, just cleverly disguised as a professor. But underneath it, if I am what I do there, there's a big problem there because what happens when I can't do it anymore? What happens when I retire? What happens if something happens? You get sick and you can't do it. Does that mean you're not worth anything anymore? No, that's not true.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I remember I would be writing on airplanes as a pastor and I would hate it because they would ask me what I do. And as soon as the, my seat mate would ask me and I would time a pastor, they would shrink back because they thought, oh no, I'm right next to a Jesus freak. Oh No, no, no. And when then try to shrivel up and I'd have to spend the whole rest of the time trying to convince them that I was on a Weirdo. So sometimes I would just say I'm an eternal life insurance salesman or something like that, you know, just to try to change it up. But now I'm on an airplane and they say, Oh, what do you do? And I say, I'm a college professor. They go, Oh really? Your colors professor. They always do that. And then I said, what do you teach when I say religion? They go, ah, oh well I had it for two seconds. Anyway, we're not what we do. We are not human doings. We're human beings. And so we have to be what we're created to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah,
Speaker 3:here's a third one. This is a biggie. I am what people think, what people think of me. So therefore my job is to impress people and make them all happy. Huh? That's a way for misery, isn't it? Because you'll never make everybody happy. Never. Never. Never. The only person I ever seen make everybody happy. He's the guy that runs an ice cream truck and we don't have room for all those ice cream trucks in central South Carolina. You can't do that and I'll bet you anything. Even the guy that drives ask him truck doesn't make everybody happy. If, if your identity is tied up to what other people thing that's called n authenticity, you're being fake.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because to be authentic means that you are offering your life. You're actually writing the script. You're not letting other people have the pen to write the script of what your life is going to be. You're going to do that under God. You and God, God's God, God's at the main author, but, but you're writing, you're not letting everybody else write your script. If you're adjusting your life and and, and valuing yourself by what other people might think of you, you're going to the wrong place. Or how about this one? This was a, it happens a lot too. I am what I've been through, particularly people that have been through hard stuff. Maybe something happened and it wounded them deeply and then they'll go back to that and that becomes an identity marker for them. Yeah. Well, if it wouldn't have been for the divorce or if it wouldn't have been for the cancer, if it wouldn't have been for my crummy childhood, if it wouldn't have been that that person had been drinking too much, and you use that and that becomes your identity. Your identity is not your past, okay? It isn't your past. Your identity is in your future. It's where you're headed. It's not where you had been. It's where you're going and you're going to heaven with Jesus, and so that's where your identity lies right there. You see these things, false identities. I have. I am what I have. What I do at people think what I've been through. They're nothing, absolutely nothing. Here's the real identity. I am the beloved. I am the beloved daughter of God and I'm the beloved son of God. I am loved deeply at the deepest place in. That's enough for me. That's your identity. And when I live in that piece of a place of peace, I can't, God can, I'll let him when I lived there, it reminds me who I am. And the police a piece also reminds me how I made, how I'm created. You said God wired us all differently. We all are unique individuals. In fact, our, our thumbprints, they're all different from each other. But everything about it's our spiritual soul print is different too. You're not the same as the person next to you. I isn't that wonderful that we're all different and that's a good thing. So I, I've been thinking about this like as we live in the love of God and we live in this place of peace, and then we were called them to love God back. That each of us, we have these spiritual love languages that are ways that we can receive and express God's love and be most authentically who we are. I've been thinking about this and teaching on it just recently. I'd like to write on it eventually, but, um, I, I found this interesting, just a fascinating concept. It's based on the great command, but you know, Jesus said, love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Well, let's think about that. The heart. Some people, your love language is hard. Like it's passion. You just love Jesus. I love Jesus. Yes I do. I love Jesus. How about you? And these guys are the ones that I'd like to sit in the front at Church and they're raising their hands like this one was seeing. And if we had a worship night, you'd be there. And they said, let's keep on singing. Right? I mean, you're just passion for Jesus. And then the sole people, those are the contemplative, the, the contemplative. They're the ones that, that do this deep introspection. They would be the ones that like to go to potter's place. If you don't know what powders places ask, ask around until you find out. Because it's an amazing place. Particularly if you're a contemplative, you go to a prayer cabin, you get alone with God, you have solitude, you'd like to journal and reflect on life and stuff like that. The third or the, those are the mind people. These are the, the intellectuals, like they love God with the way they think. Like they're the ones that say, Jesus died to take away your sins, not your brains. And so like they love to study and to dig and they ponder and they puzzle. They would love to, for instance, do a study of Leviticus. Let's just dig that out all the way to the bottom and hey, and I've know that's going to revelation. Or maybe they'll do maybe theology. They like just thinking about the deep, deep issues of theology. And then under the streets, people, they're the activists and the activist electoral roll up their sleeves and get things done. They say, let's just quit sitting around singing Kumbaya. Let's make something happen here. And so like they're the leadership people. They're the ones that make things happen. They're the ones that if they see a cause, they're going to make it happen. And they're also the people that serve others. The activist person is the one that would be cutting the grass for the widow next door because she can't do it herself. That's an activist. Okay. Now that I put everybody here, I guess my theory is that everybody is one or two of those primarily and the other two have probably not as much. All right, so here's my question. How many of you would say I am the heart problem of passion? Heart Person? Raise your hand. High passionate heart people. Let me see. Okay. Raise both hands. Both hands. You're vaccinating people remember? Okay. How about the contemplative people like you like to get alone, solitude, journaling and all that. It's going to several of those. Going to see you guys. Okay, great. How about the mind people invented electric? Think, think about ideas and stuff like that. How many of you guys? Okay? Yeah. Are you okay? How about the activist people? Let's get things done. People. Okay. Wow. Isn't it interesting? It's about a 25% like all the way across each and every time I've done this. So far it's been that way. And maybe that's what the body of Christ is all about, that we all bring our love languages are bring our gifts and we sing in harmony together. And what that means. A couple of things just real quick. I could do a whole series on this, but we don't have time to do that. But just real. Um, one is don't compare your love language with the person next to you. Like it doesn't like their love language is a good one in years as a crummy way and vice versa. Right? Like, like if you're at a passion person like this, don't judge the people that don't like to do that. And vice versa. If you're like the intellectual type that you, you, you can't stand the music and you love it when pastor Tom gets up to talk. So let's get on with it so we can get on with the real meat and potatoes. You know, maybe, maybe, uh, you need to cut some grace for the other folks, right? And just bless them and love them. And that if you're a contemplative, well that's just really great, but maybe you ought to roll up your sleeves and do something and if you're a doer, maybe, maybe the idea is to pause and take some time and reflect on it because when Jesus said it, he didn't say love God with all your heart or soul or mind or strange. He said, love God with Anne and Andy. And so take the one or two that are the biggies and major in those. Make those your main one. Make that your, your your main thing. But then, but then explore and experiment with some of the others. Right? And so this is the way it works. When I live in this place of peace, it reminds me how I made. And then thirdly, when I live in this place of peace, it reminds me who's in charge. Boy isn't that great to know that you're not in charge of the universe. You don't have to be in charge of all that. Oh, that's so good. Could you turn to the person next to you and just say you're not in charge of the universe. Just tell them they're not in charge and you can respond to say, aren't you glad about that? That's right. You are not in charge. Boy, that's a relief. See, sometimes when I'm not thinking straight and when I get into hamster wheel mode, I think I'm in charge of the universe. I think I've got to carry all these burdens and all these problems. You got to carry all this stuff with me, but there's already somebody did or that that he took care of it. There's already one in charge of the universe and when I'm trying to be in charge, I'm trying to take his job. I'm pretending like I'm God and I'm not. One time I remember I was in this place halfway between sleep and Wakefulness, so one was a half a dream you've ever had, anything like that? Sort of a weird sort of awake sort of asleep, but I had this half a dream and I dreamt I was going up a mountain. I was carrying a heavy backpack and it was just so heavy and I could hardly make it. I was staggering up this mountain. And then Jesus comes from the top of the mountain and he's coming down the path to meet me. And he smiles and he says, what are you doing? And as I'm trying to carry this load up the mountain, and he says, well, let me see what you have. And I, I take off my backpack and I give it to him. And he opens it up and he pulls out a big rock and he says, why are you carrying this? You don't need this. And then he throws it over the side of the mountain and then he reaches in my backpack and he pulls out another big rock. You don't need this one either. And he throws it over the side of the mountain and then he's up my backpack and gives it to me and I put it on and it's a lie. There are no more rocks in there. And then I woke up and I labeled my rocks, the opinions of other people and anxiety. These were two things that I'd been carrying in my backpack.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:And I didn't have to carry it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Jesus wanted to carry them. He said, cast your cares upon me. I care for you. I care for you. You don't have to carry that stuff. Just let Jesus throw the boulder off the mountain. Let them do it. Let them do it.
Speaker 4:Okay,
Speaker 3:place a piece reminds me who's in charge. Boy, that's such a beautiful thing. You know what? Here's what you do when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're stressed out, when you don't know what to do or where to turn, called God's nine one one telephone number. I know there's a good number is number always there and he always answers, always home. Here's one of the psalm 91 one God's nine one one whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty and I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge and he is my fortress and he's my God, and in him will I trust I don't have to carry all this stuff in by myself. I'm just going to dwell in the shelter of the most high. I'm going to arrest in the in the shadow of the Almighty. Don't wrestle just Nessel. That's what he's saying in there. You don't have to do this by yourself. You can turn it over to him and let him do that heavy hefting well that's the place of pace. But just real quick, if the final moments here, I want to give you just a few practical suggestions for finding the place of peace or going back to it. Because here's what happens. I mean for all of us, we might be in it for a one a little bit and then, and then stuff happens and then our lives get too busy and then we, oh, you know, and we have to get back to it again. And so these are just a few little practices that I found helpful for me to regain that pit, that place of peace in my heart. The first one is called, um, re creation. Now I would have used the word recreation, but you would be thinking of motor sports if I was doing that. And I'm not talking about motor sports here, I'm saying that we live in a pattern of replenishment and recreation. There's a Hebrew concept of day that goes all the way back to genesis chapter one that I think it was helpful for us. It's there was evening and there was morning, the first day there was evening and there was morning. The second day, the Hebrew Day begins in the evening and then they sleep. It starts with rest and then it goes to meaningful work. Now we get that the other way around. Don't worry, we will get it backwards. So we like we get up in the morning, we start our day there, Ross, Ross, Ross, hurry, hurry, crash guys, trash guys. Use Zoom, zoom zone all day long and then[inaudible] and then we exhausted, right? And so what do you do? Like you've binge on Netflix or you play video games or whatever it is that you do just to veg out until you crash and go to sleep and then you get up and do the same thing over and over and over again. Well that's one way you can do it. Do and do, do and do rule on rule that are a little here little. There we go. We've got to do it. That's the pancake way. We'll try the other way. Start with rest. And as you rise, it's meaningful work. I'm going to work. Yeah, I'm gonna work hard. But from a center of rest, you see the difference between the zoo, what replenishes you? Find what that is, and then fill the tag. Number two is pause to pause. Now those of you who are musicians, you understand how important rests and pauses are in songs, right? Like for instance, let's say you took a song and you took out all the pauses and rests. You would be like this amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found was I've ever have it. Oh, that's not beautiful. But what if you go, oh, hey, Zane gray house. We saved a wretch like me. Oh, it's clearly different story. And yet we build our lives with all this stuff and we don't even put any rest into it. And we wonder why our life is so Janky and it's not a beautiful side. The way to make it beautiful as to put rest into it. That's what Sabbath is all about. That's why it's a command to pause. It reminds us that the world can go on without us, that we're not in charge of the whole thing. Three is reflective, solitude, reflective solitude. Just taking some time to think about what you've been through like for through the day, for instance, and draw meaning from that. You're going to go through it. Why not grow through it? Why not find something that's really meaningful and helpful for you for tomorrow as you reflect on on your life? The fourth suggestion is safe relationships like is, are there any people in your life that you just feel totally safe with? You know they have your best interest in mind, they care about you and you can be totally yourself with them. If you somebody like that, nurture that relationship and if you don't have somebody like that than pray hard and look hard until you find someone because no one is an island. You need somebody that cares enough about you this way. I have a friend like that by the way, who lived, he lives up in Wisconsin. He's my best friend up there. My little girl and my, my, my little granddaughter Lily. It was in the hospital right now and my good friend, that soul friend drove three hours each way just a couple of days ago just to visit her in the hospital. And the reason why he did it was because he's my friend, not beautiful thing and that's what we need our friends like that that will step in when everybody else steps out there that are there for all the way. I hope you have a friend like that. Look for them. Meaningful service is the next one to do something good for somebody to bless somebody just because you don't get anything out of it except for the joy of doing it. And when you do it, it works really well. I saw this with my mother. She when, when my dad died, she didn't know what to do because her whole life revolved around him. Like he was the epicenter of her life and then he died and here she is. She didn't know what to do. She was lost for a while until she figured it out. And when she started doing, she started visiting hospice patients, people who are dying and she's saying hymns to them. And because she did that, um, many, many people found comfort in their last days and for years, every single day she would get up and she would drive to wherever these hospice patients were little, she's a little lady, like only four foot, like you think I'm short. I mean, she's shorter than me. And, and like she would look between the dash and the steering wheel like this and she would drive there to visit what she called the old people. Even though she was 94 years old herself, I didn't have a heart to tell her she was a lot older than they were. She visited them, you know, they gave her an award, um, as the hospice volunteer of the year of a multistate area. But in what she found was that she had to replace her grief with meaningful service. That that's what happened. And it was her, her love language was activism anyway. So that would just work perfectly for her. What can you do to make a difference in somebody's paid paid lunch for someone? Do something nice for somebody just because just blow some strangers mind whether that'd be fun. And then the last one is retreat or pilgrimage. No, I don't mean vacation. I'd know people say, ah, I need a vacation. And and what you're going to do with that, sometimes you just veg out all the more and, and you're not really getting replenished. Like what I'm seeing with a retreat or a pilgrimage. Just putting spiritual meaning into it. Take a purposeful trip and a change of pace and a change. A place gives a change of perspective. You see it in a different way. I just want to encourage you to think about it this way. Well, I hope these thoughts will be helpful for you to take whatever works, whatever it feels like God maybe was trying to say to you through what do we, what I've shared and whatever. If it is, if whatever doesn't fit, just let it go. But I know God has something good in store. Let's, let's join our hearts together. Would you please stand with me and we're going to pray together. Lord, we praise you and we thank you for who you are and what you've done in our lives and how you've helped us. We thank you, Lord, for giving us the pathway of peace you've provided. You've given this beautiful place. Lord, I pray that you would forgive us for the Times that we forget about that and we go to vein striving. We go to the hamster wheel. Lord, help us not to go there. I pray, Lord, that you would put our hearts at rest and peace in you. Keep our minds and perfect peace because our minds are fixed on you and we thank you, Lord that you promised this. Then you provide a peace that passes our understanding. We love you, Lord, and we praise you today in Jesus' name and all God's children said, Amen.