Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Peace

   I wrote this little ditty on peace for a dear friend.  I wanted to do it to show how much I appreciated our friendship and to give him some encouragement.  I figured I would share it and hopefully someone else can find it useful.

Peace- Freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquil

A lot of things can learn a lot about peace through popular slogans and catch phrases. Two of my favorites are something to the effect of "Peace in the Middle East" and "No Jesus No Peace, Know Jesus, Know Peace." Popular slogans and catch phrases are cool, but often they miss the point or makes things to be cleaner and neater than what they really are.

The first idea of Peace is this: Peace is not the absence of chaos, strife, or oh crap moments, its how we deal with them. We can stick two people in the same stressful situation and one can make it worse, while the other makes it better. True peace is more than a response, because if it was, we could fake it all the time, True peace is apart of our character and it comes from within. In other words, it can not be manufactured or faked

The second idea of Peace is this: the worlds definition and Gods definition are totally different. The worlds definition tends to be all is right in the world along with conflicts being resolved. It is the end of every action movie, because everything has been made right. Now Gods definition has this in mind and all will be made right when either God calls us home or Christ returns. Gods peace is navigating those tough situations with grace, peace and humility. True peace is taking on the issues as they come and not minimizing or overblowing the situation. Its also realizing that there is a God and we are not Him, so may be we should stop acting like it.

The third idea of Peace is this: The Apostle Paul thinks that peace is a big deal. He has scattered the issue peace all throughout of his letters. I think Paul truly understood that people will look anywhere or do anything to find peace or at least the appearance of it. People are trying to find peace in the next big thing or to get rid of something or activity. Often we have no idea where to find peace, especially in the midst of being tossed all around and being hung upside down. The peace that Paul is talking about does not come from within or some magical drug, but it only comes from God and He is the only one that can give it out. One of Jesus final reminders to us before His ascension was that not only does He give out peace, but He leaves it with us. Gods peace brings comfort, understanding, and courage, no matter what life throws at us.

The fourth idea of Peace is this: sometimes it is being ok with the ambiguous. There are some things or situations that just can not be tied up with a red ribbon while everyone is walking away happy to theme music. I think we should strive for this, but sometimes the hardest part is accepting things we can not change. Whether it is a relationship with a parent, child, significant others, or the ex, sometimes the hardest thing to do is accept the situation as is. This does not mean we keep adding fuel to the fire, but its knowing how to deal with the wierdness cause we all know that life can get weird fast.

The fifth idea of Peace is this: It is actually calming down and realizing that we not God. The Psalmist writes that we are to be still and to know that God is God. In the midst of this Psalm, life is in utter chaos and we have two choices. We can do things the hard way and contribute to the madness and this tends to add fuel to the fire. Or we can defuse the situation be remaining calm and not only realizing that God is still God, but it is putting Him on is throne. As the Prophet Elijah learned, God can be found in a lot of places, but He is most commonly found in the still and quiet voice.

So here are some basic questions in relations to Peace: What are some the ways you add chaos to your life or to the lives of the people that are close to you? What are some of the distractions that limit you from not only seeking God, but hearing from Him? What do you need to do to change that?