The wrong rabbit

Sometimes when I get anxious my wild, monkey mind roves about conjuring up ideas about what I might acquire in order to feel settled and maybe even happy. I take off running, chasing the object of my desire. Not far down the path I slow down and come to a stop. I look around. I am lost. Where am I? Hmm, I’ve done it again. I am chasing the wrong rabbit. I turn and head back toward home whispering the words of the old saint, “You made us for yourself O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” 

I am not the first to suffer and stumble in this way. It is the human condition. Somewhere along the way we all get it in our heads that exterior things and circumstances can make us happy and give us peace. They can’t, not for long anyway. The designer of our hearts has made our hearts in such a way that only Love will do the trick to soothe the ache and fill the empty space inside. “God, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

What I really want is a felt sense of God’s love welling up inside of me as the source of my being. Now that I’m grown I know that Love doesn’t protect us from hard things, rather it sustains us as we live through hard things. That’s the rabbit I want to chase. The good news is I don’t have to go anywhere to catch Him. The Spirit whispers, “Be still and know that I am God. 

If you’re chasing the wrong rabbit, don’t worry too much about it. It’s okay, we’re all chasing him. But when you catch him, let him go, and then remind yourself that nothing less than Love will do to calm your restless heart.