I DESPERATELY want peace in my life, but it seems impossible. My husband is often depressed and regularly threatens to quit work, which would throw us (once again) into financial turmoil. My teenage children act out a lot and I constantly worry about their future. I'm ready to let go of fear and drama, but no one else is! How can I experience God's lasting peace with so much chaos all around?
To experience lasting peace, you need to release all sources of fear and drama in your life. In this instance, that means letting go of any attachments to your husband and your children. Until that happens, you will be forever held hostage by the ups and downs of their existence.
You see, forces of illusion don't really care if they manipulate you directly or through other influences, as long as the same enslaving result is achieved. In a sense, the longer you react to such threats the longer you ensure the unwholesome use of your husband and your children as pawns of illusion. In ceasing to respond to such coercion, you not only free yourself, you create powerful new opportunities for those around you to enter freedom as well.
On the journey to liberation, most seekers progress from individually or personally surrendering to God, to surrendering everyone and everything else around them. Strangely enough, this often requires significantly more courage and trust, because it is in such outer forms that we often unknowingly stash the most treasured, coveted and vulnerable parts of ourselves.
Hence, most every seeker initially fools themselves in thinking they have fully yielded to God's care, when in reality remaining aspects (parts they are not quite yet ready to let go of) continue to live on and thrive in such outer forms. As a result, view your reaction to the chaos around you as simply a sign that additional facets of your consciousness need to be released into God's care. Seen in that light, the drama currently surrounding your husband and your children is serving a mighty, loving purpose in so clearly pointing the way.
Once you no longer respond with fear, drama or frustration to your husband's depression or your children's antics, it means you are no longer responding to those same hidden traits within yourself, thereby permanently taking away the power of such negative influences in your life.
Ultimately, ALL earthly influences lose their power once you FULLY surrender to God's perfected care. This entails not only offering up your "individual" life, but also all hidden aspects or attachments. Such is the true meaning of an en-lightened (or burden-free) existence. Only amidst such a state, does true, lasting peace arise!
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