What Jean-Claude Taught Me About Peace

Trouble is compounding. I'm not talking about "when it rains, it pours" or death coming in 3's. I'm referring to people who live lives of tumult. We all have friends or family members who exist in such a state of instability that we immediately doubt any new relationship or job that they engage in. Their lives are like Jean-Claude Van Damme in any straight-to-video movie he's ever done the splits in. Despite the fact that he's always just minding his own, he inevitably invites trouble, and disaster abounds in the form of triple-replay side kicks and slow-mo close-ups of his face yelling, "Bwaaaaaaaaa!" He is empowered by conflict. Troubled people are empowered by conflict. They exist in a tornadic crapball of drama that ills them and keeps them alive at the same time. Their hearts yearn for peace, yet their actions crush it.
Emotionally healthy people, safe people, are like bars of fresh Irish Spring that the dude just shaved with his Irish pocketknife for the sake of wafting its mossy, green goodness to his nose. The incredible thing about my bar of Irish Spring is, that if I drop that little green nugget of virtue on the ground and it gets covered in hair and bugs and such, it cleans right off in the shower. Freshness fills the steamy air and it can clean others again. That's the kind of health that changes lives. That's where God wants to take us, and I'm sure it's the abundant life Jesus was talking about.
How does one move from Jean-Claude to Irish Spring? I don't think it happens without a big ol' journey, and I think it may start with insight into oneself. Acknowledgement of a problem is the first step to addressing it. Troubled people live in a constant state of denial and blame. Peaceful people have insight. And at the core of insight is humility. Humility is really freaking hard. I guess that's why a lot of us are still thriving on roundhouse kicks, poor acting, and excuses to fight.