The Way to Peace

We are entering a holiday season that is often marked by spiritual overtones.  One word that is used and perhaps overused during Christmas and the New Year is "peace".  "Peace be with you", "Peace on Earth", "Go in Peace"...there are so many phrases on plaques, wreaths, Christmas cards...in greetings, sermons and yes, even blogs that sometimes these words are spoken with as much notice as a common "How are you?".  I am guilty.  The word "peace" usually just goes over my head.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's.  It was a time when there was great change and also great fear.  The "Jesus movement" was a part of the hippie environment that was predominate among the young people of that generation.  Free love and peace were displayed on posters, graffiti, and seen on the news, television shows, in the art work and in movies.  The carnage of the Vietnam War was aired into our living rooms as young soldiers were caught on tape crawling through jungles, being shot and killed, and killing.  There were protestors, draft dodgers, and injured soldiers on the streets and in the news.  As news of the Vietnam War came to an end, we found ourselves living under the constant threat of nuclear war.  The school children were very much aware that the USSR had nuclear war heads pointed at our country - one for every one we had pointed at the USSR.  We watched informational films at school describing what would happen in the event of a nuclear war.  The Emergency Broadcast System interrupted our favorite cartoons to remind us how we would be given instruction in case of such emergencies.  My church was designated as a "bomb shelter" because of the thick concrete walls on its foundation.  Peace was being called for all the time.  I remember watching the beauty pageants where the contestants were asked a question.  Often it would be something like, "What is one thing that you would work toward to change our world for the better?"  Inevitably the answer would be, "Peace".  The hand peace sign was created.  The hippies would hold us two fingers and flash them at cameras and passersby.  The circular symbol with a crows foot inside began to show up on T-shirts, mugs, walls, and jewelry.  The Christians tried to stop the use of this symbol claiming some sort of Satanic attachment and a hidden meaning behind it, but the need for expression of this ideal and the commercial market was weighty enough that it has made a resurgence time and time again.  Music and poetry have always produced nostalgic notions of a time of peace that once was, has never really been, or is longed for.

Most of these attempts to express a need that we have in the core of our very being have failed.  We feel hopeless to see wars and the threat of wars end.  We feel that violence has overtaken our cities and streets and there is no way we will regain them.  We see the wounds of disdain for one another in crimes of hate.  There is an epidemic of violence in the home.  There is then, as well, apathy for it all.
We really feel there is no peace and don't know where to find it.  It is just a word.

This week it became more than a word to me.  As I continued in my personal study of the book of Romans, I was brought to Chapter 5.  The first four chapters are written so that we understand that Christ died for all who believe, that it is by grace only we are justified, and that we have no righteousness of our own - but that we have the righteousness of Christ living in us.  The first few verses in Chapter 5, then, give us what we are longing for - the way to have peace.  There is only one way to have peace - real peace - and that is of God.  He is Peace.  He is the giver of Peace.  He is the sustainer of Peace everlasting.  We will never attain peace in this world.  It is not of man, nor is it of the world. Only in God, is peace found.  I saw some booklets that some children had written - probably as a project for school - in which they had been asked to describe peace.  Some of them said, "Peace is petting my cat,"  "Peace is a warm home." and even "Peace is ME".  I am sure they had been told to draw pictures of and comment on what peace meant to them personally and they thought of happiness.  I'm sure that if parents had been asked the same thing they would have come up with things such as the kids not fighting, financial security, quiet day off, and maybe no war.  But real peace comes from the Creator God who made us and from following his son, Jesus, and obeying His word.

This has really made me more aware of what I am looking for from this world.  I am more sure that this world is not our home and a better place has been planned for us.  Someday we will live in the peace of the presence of our Father and there will be no more war, no more fighting, no more hate or greed or sin.  Until that time, we can find true peace only in the confines of our faith and trust in God.