Acceptance and peace, and babies fighting sleep

When things don’t go my way, simply wishing for different circumstances or outcomes or wherever doesn’t do any good. Nor does trying to busy myself with distractions or becoming bitter or complacent. Not only are these attempts literally useless in helping the situation, they also don’t accomplish the good that God might be working in and through me.

Acceptance doesn’t mean just “not doing anything” (we very well may be required to be actionably bold in the midst of accepting), rather it refers to a deep recognition of God’s sovereignty.

As I write this, I’m trying to get my eight-month old to nap. Nursing, laying on my chest, rocking, taking a pacifier- nothing is doing the trick. The things that usually help her aren’t because she’s fighting sleep. Just as she’s about to drift off, she feels, I imagine, uncomfortable with the sensation of being tired, so she fusses, which keeps her from doing the one thing that would make her feel better- sleeping.

When we try to have peace by means such as forgetting, striving, or accepting defeat (as in the poem below), we rob ourselves of the very thing that would actually help us, like a baby fighting their nap because they’re tired.

Amy Carmichael was a missionary who rescued and gave hope to more than a thousand children in India. Her work and words are inspiring, poignant, and brilliant. Here’s a poem of hers entitled In Acceptance Lieth Peace:

“He said, ‘I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places,
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.’
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain;
O tears that drown the fire of manhood cease.’
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavour lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life’s riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.’
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleted
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?’
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.

He said, ‘I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His son explain.’
Then did the turmoil deep within me cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace.”