Devotional – April 24, 2025

From the poet John Roedel

I used to think that achieving inner peace 

would make my heart look like a calm lake

I thought being in 

harmony meant: 

no ripples

no waves

no lapping shores

~ just still water

it turns out that

serenity isn’t the absence

of movement

in fact 

~ it’s quite 

the opposite

because the more 

peace I feel

the more my heart 

churns and bubbles

like a lake boiling as a ribbon of lava breaks through the bedrock under

the water

I don’t think we were created

out of nothingness to come

here just to let our hearts become

an unmoving body of cold water

covered in standing algae 

I think the Great Love placed

a fire in us so that our lives will

be a natural spring of swirling 

hot healing water that never

looks the same way twice

the war machine thinks

it is the only thing that can

move and lumber

~ and that’s simply not true

peace is the most disturbing

force in the universe

peace is the tide that washes

away the ancient seaweed of 

division that builds upon our shores

peace is anything but still

it’s a tsunami that can terraform 

rock fortresses into open-air chapels

my love,

I’m starting to realize

that the less my heart moves

~ the heavier it gets

~ the more dust it collects

~ the less kindness I feel 

but when I let my heart

constantly stir

like a cotton candy machine

~the lighter and 

sweeter it becomes

empathy is an act of chaos

it takes the narcissistic 

scripts we have been given 

and rewrites them into 

a handwritten gospel 

of understanding 

peacefulness is 

anything but still

~ it is pure motion 

peace is the ripple

that starts in the center of my heart

and rushes out through the faucets 

of my eyes, hands and tongue 

out into the world

my love, 

ripples

are remarkable 

because

we aren’t here 

to be stagnant 

we are here to make a splash

~ john roedel

art: Ryann Carey Paintings

Peace Be With You. – Paul