"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Phillipians 4:6-7
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Jesus...John 14:27
When I was at Desert Solace, one day I read those two verses in Phillipians, and since I was just beginning to see things with new eyes, the idea of a peace that passes all understanding just jumped off the page at me! Imagine...experiencing a personal peace that cannot be understood! That cannot be explained! That cannot be defined! What!? And I remember thinking right away, "How?" Something like that seemed so out of reach for me, and yet I knew it was something I wanted so very badly.
As I've pondered this, read about this, and prayed about this, I've discovered that much of the answer of "how" is in these very verses. "Be careful for nothing." Quit worrying about every little thing, Martha. Let it go. Focus on Me and what's most important. "Prayer and supplication." Spend time with Me. Talk to Me and listen to Me. "With thanksgiving." Learn to live in constant gratitude. Be thankful. Even for the difficulties, the pain, and the natural consequences of the fallen world I live in. Practice gratitude every day, especially when it's hard. And after all that...as I do my best to live that way, I will become someone different and will begin to experience that kind of peace. It cannot be explained but can only be experienced. So often we just get a taste of it, but it's so good when we do! Then...that peace we are living in will "keep" both our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. It always begins and ends with Him.
Jesus said His peace is not the same as the world's peace. The world defines peace as an absence of conflict, but the Savior's peace is supernatural and not dependent on circumstances. It is powerful and it is active, and replaces worry with a deep internal stability we can't find anywhere else. Unless His peace has been experienced, once again, it's hard to describe. One of the most repeated messages in all scripture is to "be not afraid." "Let not your heart be troubled." Time and time again we hear that and we read that, and yet we are not very good at doing that. President Russell M. Nelson taught us that the only way to experience peace, and joy, is to make Jesus the focus of our lives, despite the circumstances of our lives. It doesn't matter what is going on around us, and even our own suffering and pain can be redeemed as we focus on Jesus, and live in gratitude.
President Nelson, in the last few years of his long life, spoke often of being peacemakers, with the focus being on how we interact with each other. We live in a messed up world, and it's filled with fear, hate, selfishness, finger pointing, demeaning language, "us" vs. "them," war, and judgement. So his message was, "Imagine how different our world could be if more of us were peacemakers - building bridges of understanding rather than walls of prejudice - especially with those who see the world differently than we do...Even small acts - like reaching out across lines of faith, culture, or politics - can open doors to healing." "Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions."
If we are being peacemakers, what's that mean? Is it more than just sitting at home meditating and reading scripture? Is it more than just being "nice" with neighbors or on social media? I think the word "maker" denotes action. If I'm a "bread maker" then I'm actually doing something to make bread. I'm following a recipe and I'm doing the work to get that warm loaf of bread out of the oven. And then I can bless someone's life with a nice piece of warm, buttered bread. It takes effort and it takes work and it requires intention...
If we are going to "make" peace, we begin with ourselves. As we've already talked about, we find our peace not through just a lack of contention in our life, but with an investment of time and effort in the Savior. We "look to Him in every thought," and as we practice that, we can "doubt not, fear not." We can begin to live in personal peace. We must make peace with ourselves. We must learn to let go of expectations and of the "shoulds" of our life. "I should be doing ______." "I should not have done/said/thought/_______." We must stop "shoulding" on ourselves. We look at the past, whether it was 5 years, 5 months, or 5 minutes ago, just as learning experience. We don't judge it, we don't judge ourselves about it, and we let it go. We give ourselves necessary grace. If we cannot practice that, we will never have peace.
We have a choice...to live a life of acceptance or resistance. Acceptance is letting things "just be." It is accepting things as they are and as they have been...letting go...while resistance is a constant fight. Of course, we are always making plans for tomorrow, and the days and months to come, and we are seeking for something "better," even when we can't quite define what that means. Acceptance is planning, but with the understanding that our plans might not be what is best for us, and God might have something much better waiting down the road for us. We are open to that. Resistance is thinking we can control it all...our lives and the lives of those around us. Living a life of resistance breeds resentment, fear, and misery. No doubt we all know that person living their life of resistance, and you can usually see it in their countenance and their constant frustration.
First, we choose peace, then we can make peace. Most of us live in a world of "have/do/be." "I will be happy (or have peace in my life) when______________(I get a new job, more money, new house, new neighbors, join a new church, get a new car, etc., etc., etc.) Then...I will do______________. And then I will be happy...
But let's look at this in a different way. "Be/do/have." First, I will "be." I will choose peace, and then, because of my choice, I will act a certain way. I will 'do." I will "go about doing good." And as I "do," then I will "have." I will have everything I need that God will bless me with. I will have peace as I choose peace and as I live a peaceful life...
Too often we equate peace with happiness, but I don't believe they are the same thing. And really, joy is a much better word than happiness. Real joy is less fleeting and much deeper than happiness. Joy is what we see so often as we read scripture. Most often, joy and peace are partners and we experience them together.
Many of us feel that our worth is based on our busyness. We feel that if we're not busy, we're not okay. Yes, there are things to do. The gospel, and living as a peacemaker, asks for effort and action. But if our "doing" is how we seek validation, we will never experience the peace we are seeking. I read that "Christianity is not a program of self-improvement." It is a program of surrender." And I believe that! Our improvement...our peace...comes from the Savior, while we partner with Him in all our "doing."
So...as we begin to experience, and practice, personal peace, we get to spread it. We get to pull our candle out from under the basket and shine our light so others can see it, can feel it, and can be warmed by it. We get to choose a different way of being, and we get to show that to the world. We begin to make peace with our spouse and with our families. We speak differently; we listen more intently. We are present and we pay attention. We give them grace and we forgive easily. We let go of past resentments and ask forgiveness. As Jesus did, we go about doing good. And when we slip and fall...kinda like a relapse...we just get up and try again. We keep practicing. The only thing we can do perfectly is to not quit...
As we begin to experience peace, and share our peace with those closest to us, we then get to take that out into the world. We take it to church, where we get to practice with people who may be very different than us, but share our belief in Jesus. We get to practice loving and serving them. We then take it to the office, or to school, into our neighborhoods, and we definitely change the tone of our social media, including who and what we follow. Things that used to be important simply become much less so. Our focus has changed. We don't want to dabble in the darkness any longer, but choose light instead.
One critical thing to remember...Making peace is not for the faint of heart! It is not easy work, and it will not go unnoticed by the enemy. We will experience attacks, and we will have to make a choice of how to respond. Jesus told us to love our enemies, "bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Really Jesus? Yes, that's how we practice peace. We go into the fray with a smile on our face and peace in our heart, unafraid, and we pray to bless lives of those who love us and those who hate us. That takes work, effort, courage, and strength. It requires a boldness that comes only from strong personal peace. But...just imagine the difference we each can make in a world sinking in the quicksand of hate, fear, racism, and constant war. This is what we are called to do...
"Peace is not merely the absence of conflict; it is a way of life, a conscious choice we make very day.
"It begins in the quiet moments, in the words we speak, and in how we treat those around us.
"Let us begin where we are, with the people we know, and the communities we belong to.
"No act of kindness is too small, no step towards understanding too insignificant.
"When we choose peace within ourselves, we nurture peace around us.
"In doing so, we create space for healing, for hope, and for a world rooted in compassion and justice."
"Choose Peace" by Mary Anne Byrne
Peace, my friends...
Comments
Post a Comment