Peace,
Perfect Peace
John
14:25-27
Peace! Sometimes it
feels unattainable. In the midst of
political wrangling, armed conflict in the world’s hotspots, mass shootings in
schools, workplaces—even churches, infighting between denominations within the
church, how can we have even a hope of peace?
We may feel external peace is impossible, and we are
likely right. We cannot control the
people who feel it necessary to fight for what they believe—even considering it
acceptable to kill noncombatants to make their point. Useless political wrangling will continue
until our legislators and government leaders realize that only through working
together (it’s called compromise) can
anything meaningful be accomplished for the people they purport to serve. Senseless shootings will continue until we as
a nation decide to do something sensible about the number and types of guns
which are far too available to those who should not be armed.
Meanwhile, what can we do? We must live in this world. There are few places we can go to escape the
“bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor” (Ephesians 4:31) that surrounds
us. Most of us cannot retire to
monasteries or convents or other places where a person can live in peace. We must remain in the society where we are,
for this is where our families are, where our careers are, where our hearts
are. Even if we could escape most of us
would find the price too high.
Several quotes I have come across recently may help
define the problem. In most cases they
deal with inner peace—perhaps the only kind we have any hope of attaining.
“For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the
universe.” So says Larry Eisenberg—and
he’s right. Too many of us feel we must
control everything around us. We are the
only ones who can make the universe operate.
We are the only ones who can make our families run right. We are the only ones who know how to make
things happen the way they’re supposed
to happen.
Well—we’re wrong.
None of us have the qualifications to run the universe. The only One who can accomplish that is God. We can only play God, and it’s a role we will never be successful at.
“If there is to be any peace, it will come through being,
not having.” Henry Miller is in complete
agreement with James, who says in his letter to the churches (4:2), “You desire
and do not have, so you murder. You
covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel….”
I think God was right in placing “Do not covet” as the
last of the Ten Commandments, because it sums up all the other ethical
ones. I also believe Buddhists are right
in saying we must control our desires.
When our wants run rampant we set ourselves up for all kinds of
antisocial behaviors. We must learn to be at peace. We can’t buy it.
The quote I can’t completely agree with comes from an
unknown source: “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope
with it.”
In
our present world this is true. We can’t eliminate external conflict so we
must find a way to attain inner peace.
This will help us cope with outward strife. But that’s not the way God intended the world
to be, and not the way God intends to leave it.
Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.” This is the inner peace that Jesus
demonstrated throughout his ministry. In
the world to come our peace will be perfect, because God will give us shalom, peace without conflict, inner or
outer; a peace which will be perfect.
Until then, we can wish each other shalom
as a sign that we know where our peace comes from—and where it’s going.
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