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On December 1, I was in my usual Christmas Bubble – Cinnamon in the air, Carols up loud… wonder and whimsy all around…
Then a few things happened that shook me awake and reminded me of the state of our broken world…
People are hurting each other everywhere I turn… Whether it’s a man in Sydney, Australia holding 17 people hostage, or a school in Pakistan where innocent children are slaughtered, or the house down the street where a woman is beaten, or the silent crimes that we hear nothing about. people suffering alone and in silence.
I think about the family that just lost a loved one, the child whose parents are cruel, those who are financially burdened…
By the time Jesus was born, the Jewish people knew what it was to be captive, oppressed… brutalised. They were waiting for a saviour, Isaiah prophesied “He will be called… Prince of Peace.” They were expecting circumstantial peace… and we seek it too… “if my bank account was full, if I got the right job… if I hadn’t suffered this or that, than I would be at…”
Peace is not based in the circumstantial. It’s transcendent… a stillness of heart, a knowing… A gift from God. It’s the fragrance of His presence, an awareness of His heart.
In the midst of illness, tragedy, heartache, the unfair, and downright evil, Jesus is my peace. When I close my eyes, not to become unaware of the world, but to focus on Christ, he settles the churning within. I can open my eyes again and gaze upon the same struggling world with new hope…
We work to a place of peace, not from it… Injecting it under humanities' skin and watching its subversive effects on the lives around us from the inside out…
It strengthens us to be helpers not observers… To get amongst the muck of the world and help… shoulder each other’s heartaches, defy evilness and strengthen the vulnerable.
As the phrase “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men” gets passed around like Christmas candy, still yourself and allow Jesus to bring his transcendent peace to your life. Look to the world near and far, not with hopelessness, but with peace and compassion… and then get amongst it and spread that stuff around like crazy…
Be the peace.