No, I’m not talking about zen. Nor am I talking about yoga or some type of new age meditation technique. What I’m talking about is is a transcending peace that displaces the center of your life that flows into all aspects of life around you. I know, I know, how in the world does a person get to a place where worry is displaced by peace in a world that’s constantly checking facebook statuses, twitter feeds and instagram pictures? I mean, is it even possible to live a life where the center of it is not focused on the utterly banal existence you call your life? Philosophers would argue, “no.” The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Philippians 4:6-7) To begin, let me tell you why “worries” are at the center of your life: It’s because when we start prioritizing our lives, and shifting things, we become consumed by things or ideas of things and therefore, we spend much of our time, centering on those things or ideas and our lives become an existence that seeks those things and ideas that we worry so much about. For example, if you worry a lot about money, its probably because you’re spending much of your day focused and honed on issues of money or making money or spending money. Likewise, some of us “worry” about our clothes and we spend every aspect of our lives analyzing, critiquing and improving our clothing sense. Best example, some of us “worry” about our kids. I’m not talking about parental worries, but I’m talking about helicopter/tiger mom type of worrying where you are consumed, as a parent, about every little decision your kid makes or doesn’t make and the repercussions of those made or unmade decisions. If we just stop “worrying” because we know for a fact that by being consumed by something or an idea of something really doesn’t do anything except give us blinders, we would find ourselves doing everything we can so that we won’t worry. Paul tells the church to allow the knowledge of God in your life transform those worries into prayers that displace the unimportant things that you have been centered on with the most important thing of relying on God for your everything. In other words, when we start considering whether we are thanking God, gratefully and faithfully, our worries become displaced from our center. Instead we will find God, in whom we rely on for everything, to be at the center of our lives providing for anything we may need to worry about. Displace your worrisome center with thanks to Christ.