Finding Peace When Others Try to Get Under Your Skin

Stay peaceful amid spiritual battles. Learn why others' actions aren't about you and how to reclaim your power. Stop being offended and find your inner calm.

*This is the written version of 'its not you' podcast episode #51

I texted my daughter this weekend. I said, "I think I'm starting to fear God again."
I asked her if she saw the opening at the Paris Olympics, where this disgusting display of depravity was used to depict Jesus' last supper.

And then what happened was, (I don't know the timeframe)...within 24 hours, Paris was in a complete blackout. Except for one massive, beautiful church."
All of Paris was blacked out during the Olympics after this disgusting display, except for one beautiful church.

Now, I'm not an apologist. I believe what I believe about many different things, and I don't apologize to anybody for them. They are my beliefs, and nobody will shame me out of them.

That being said, because of the nature of this episode, I will lay out where I'm at. I have always believed in God. I talk to God every day.
However, I do not preach God. I don't read the Bible. I don't recite the Bible because I can't. And I do not like being preached to. If something rises a spark in me because of, maybe something I overheard in the passing, great.

But I do not like people demanding I listen to what they have to say...to God's word... I don't know what it is. I just don't like that. I think are most human beings are like that, we come to things on our own.

Now, I do believe we are in spiritual warfare. I believe we are in a battle of good versus evil. And all of what I just said, including about the Paris Olympics, comes into play for this episode.

I'm going to play for you a clip from a video that I heard this morning. She talks about God and Jesus, but that's not the point of me playing this clip.

As I've said in other episodes, when I give examples about my own life and how I overcame something - the idea is for you to not look for an exact situation in your life where that happened, but to take the message itself and the teachings and apply them to any situation in your life.

And that goes for this recording that I'm going to share. If you're not religious and you don't believe in God and Jesus, that's okay. That's not why I'm playing it.

I'm playing it for a few other reasons. One, she (in the audio) is the exact example of what I've been saying all along.

People don't do things to you. They do things for themselves.

And as far as the Paris Olympics goes, I don't know for certain, but it sounds like she was alluding to that as well. And that also plays into my ulterior message.

You know, about when I say people don't do things to you, they do things for themselves. The idea is, so you stop giving your power away, so you own your power.

And you become strong within yourself to stand up for yourselves and stop letting other people decide for you who you are, how you should live, and what you should do with your life.

So again, as I say, I'm not an apologist, but I want you to know that the intent of this is not to push Jesus or God. If you believe, great. If you don't, great.

I'm going to help suss out the message so we can get straight to the point. I'll be back after it's about four and a half minutes long, and we'll discuss the relevant bits as to why I brought this in in the first place.

But I'm sure you already would have picked them out yourself.

Here's that recording:

"I'm a former atheist, and I used to be an Internet troll who would rattle the cages of believers on the Internet. I used to love it. Man, if I could steal somebody's peace, ooh, I've made a hypocrisy of their whole faith because Jesus said, my peace, I give you. My peace, I leave you.

And if something so petty as a comment from a stranger on the Internet can rob you of your peace, then how shallow our faith must have been to begin with.

Now, on the other side of this, as a Christian, (there's a plot twist I wasn't expecting.) I market a unique mission of mine to share this with people, that this is the goal of the enemy. This is the devil's assignment for his followers, or just non-believers in general is to rob believers of our peace.

Our peace. His peace is a souvenir of our relationship with him. And if he can rob us of that most precious gift, then he can steal what Jesus has left us with. The only peace I have ever found in my life.

It has not been found in men. It has not been found in booze. It has not been found in dyeing my hair a different color. In losing weight, in gaining weight, in getting an outfit, getting a raise, none of it.

The only peace I've ever experienced is with God and God alone. And if he can steal that from us, he can steal the unique thing that only God can provide to this world so desperately seeking and needing it.

We must hold fast to our faith in the face of societal mocking, in awful depictions of religious imagery, in degrading ways that they think is going to matter. Our peace is what sets us apart in this world.

And if the world can take it from us, well, then what does that say about who we have put on the throne, whether it be God or the world. When they mock us in our faith, when they spit in our face.

As followers of Jesus, we must stand tall and not react in kind, but react in love and in patience and in sympathy, in mercy and in grace.

Because let me tell you, as a former atheist, when a believer would behave that way, I went running. But it planted a seed, that maybe, just maybe, this thing might actually be true. It might actually work.

When they get a rise out of us, they get a win.

Don't give them the win. That's the spiritual battle. Keep your peace. Hold on to your peace. That's the commodity the world seeks to rob you of the most, because that is the biggest testimony we have. because it is the thing that sets us apart in this world the most.

You go out there and you be the peace of Jesus. You go be the hands and feet of Jesus. We go be the love of Jesus because as followers of him, that is what we have been called to do.

Not make angry posts on the Internet. Not get all up in arms. Go show that love. Go react in a way that people don't expect you to react. You wanna get someones attention for the Lord, that's how you do it.

It's coming from a former atheist who now is given my life to God. I owe everything to Jesus and my Christian faith. Please take it from me as somebody who's lived on both sides.

You go be the peace. You go be the love to them. That's how you change their heart. That's how people changed mine. Was by being Jesus to me, For him. that's today's word." (this is the end of the recording)

All right, let's go. First thing she says is, "I used to be an Internet troll who would rattle the cages of believers on the Internet. I used to love it. Man, if I could steal somebody's peace, oh, I've made a hypocrisy of their whole faith because Jesus said, my peace, I give you."

She's clearly talking about Jesus and faith. But what I'm focusing on are her words. I used to be an Internet troll who would rattle the cages of, she says, believers, but of whatever.

Just somebody intentionally rattling the cage because the person they were rattling was easy prey. Because they could get rattled. Because they had no inner peace. Because they're worried about what other people think of them. So they constantly need to justify, validate, and seek approval.

And she explicitly says she is doing this for her pleasure. In other words, she's not doing it to someone, she's doing it for herself, Her own gratification.

Then she goes on to say, if something so petty as a comment from a stranger on the Internet can rob you of your peace, oh, how shallow our faith must have been to begin with.

This could be substituted as faith in yourself. Trust in yourself to know better. To know what's good for you, to know that no matter what happens, you'll be able to figure stuff out.

She goes on to say she wants to share this because this is the goal of the enemy. This is the devil's assignment for his followers, or just non-believers in general, to rob believers of their peace.

Taking the religious aspects out, should you not believe in this...What we're talking about is the spiritual warfare. We have so much crap being thrown at us in every direction, and it is with this explicit intent to keep us off balance.

To keep us in fear and anger and hatred, hating our neighbors, hating other races. All of that sucks our energy and feeds the beast. Feeds the globalists, the government.

And closer to home, it could be your parents, your spouse. You could be talking about your kids, your friends. It doesn't matter. Whoever you're angry at and feel resentment toward, you're literally feeding the beast - them.

Because:

The peace that is there for us can only be found within.

That's when I always say, come back home to yourself. It doesn't matter what's going on outside around you. It doesn't matter what addiction you have. It's never going to be enough to cover up the empty hole until you go within and find peace there.

And when you find peace there, everything outside of you doesn't matter how chaotic it is, it won't affect you. And then she goes on to express this as well.

"The only piece I've ever found in my life, it's not been found in men, has not been found in booze, has not been found in dyeing my hair a different color, and losing weight and gaining weight and getting an outfit, getting a raise, none of it. The only peace I've ever, ever experienced is with God and God alone."

The caveat again - She speaks about God. For me, it would be the creator or source. Well, I say God a lot, too. For you, it could be whatever it is for you.
We don't have to give everything a label. If we trust ourselves, that's what matters.

If we have inner peace, that's what matters. Now, here's the part where she didn't explicitly say it, but where I'm assuming she's talking about the Olympic event.

She says "We must hold fast to our faith in the face of societal mocking and awful depictions of religious imagery in degrading ways that they think is going to matter.
Our peace is what sets us apart in this world.

And if the world can take it from us, well, then what does that say about who we have put on the throne? Whether it be God or the world."

Who have you put on the throne? Is it your parents? Do you let them, as an adult, still run all over you? Is it your boss? Do you allow your boss to treat you like shit?

Is it your friends who like you for some things but don't want to give you a say in conversation? Did you give your throne to an addiction? Or maybe shopping for things you can't afford so you can cover up your insecurities with a designer name?

Here's more from her:

"When they mock us in our faith, when they spit in our face, as followers of Jesus, we must stand tall and not react in kind, but react in love. And in patience and in sympathy, in mercy and in grace."

This is something that I often talk about myself, by way of becoming whole. One with ourselves. Coming back home to ourselves. Because when we do that, what other people do doesn't bother us.

And we have the ability to see beyond people's behavior to the pain underneath. From there, you can see the individual with compassion, as opposed to hate and anger.

And in doing so, you're still hanging on to your own power. And not giving it to them to feed off of. In other words, in the face of "evil", you remain peaceful.
Now, that doesn't mean being complacent. Because our complacency is what they're relying on.

Robbing peace is the goal of the enemy, whoever that enemy is. Staying and remaining peaceful is a testament of how to win our battles.

Now I know what you might be thinking because I hear it a lot. Which is, you're expecting me to stay peaceful when I'm being attacked? When I'm under fire? When somebody is in my face, treating me horribly?

No, I don't expect you to do that. What is being suggested is when you come home to yourself and you become whole...which is not as hard as you might think it is...(And by the way, I have a course called Slay Your Inner Demons, which addresses all of this.)

You will literally be at peace within where peace is supposed to reside. And you will act accordingly from a place of peace.
For some, that may be walking away, and sooner or later somebody gets the hint.

Depending on the situation, it could mean peaceful resistance, it could mean defiance even.

But you're peaceful. Unscathed. But you will not tolerate what's going on. But you're doing it in a peaceful manner, unscathed by any attempts to demoralize, dehumanize, or slander you.

None of that phases you. But you are standing up for what you believe in. For instance, the Paris Olympics, people didn't go around burning buildings and toppling, you know, statues.

They simply voiced their disgust and boycotted the Olympics. And many people have also boycotted the advertisers for the Olympics. Because that was their line in the sand.

For some, it wasn't their line in the sand, but it was intolerable enough that they refuse to, again, feed the beast, give their power away.

But they're damn well going to stand in their power and do something and not just sit by complacently complaining about it.

That's a lot of words I just spoke. Let me. Let me put it this way. When you are at peace, none of those questions even come into play. They're never asked by yourself.

Because when you're at peace, the answers come as and if you need them.

All you have to do to know this to be true is just go back in your mind to a time or a few times when you were so at peace that nothing bothered you.

Remember what was going on for you at the time that even brought the peace about, or that feeling of peace. Remember how that felt and feels.

When you step back there into that feeling, you'll know what I mean.