Remembering the Reality of God’s Powerful Peace

Can we play a game? I’m going to say, er, write a word and then you’re going to notice what ideas, words, or pictures come to mind first. Ready? Scroll down.

Corn.

Okay, that wasn’t it. That was a test. Are you sure you’re ready now?

Peace.

What do you think about when you hear the word “peace”? For me, words like stillness, silence, and calm come to mind. Peace seems like a neutral, maybe slightly positive word. Maybe you would agree it’s a state of existence where not much is happening. It’s not as emotive as words like delight, love, or freedom.  So then why should we really care about peace?

I’ve written about the path to peace through recognizing our smallness, the way to find lasting peace, and cultivating peace through journaling, but you maybe have wondered (like I have) why we shouldn’t set our sights on something bigger and better such as joy.

We walk into a hushed spa or garden, and we say it is peaceful. No loud sounds disrupt the quiet.

We come upon a still pond, and we describe it as peaceful. No rocks break the surface, and no wind stirs up the water. Nothing is acting on the pond, so it is peaceful.

I think you and I can attest that in this broken world, hushed atmospheres and still ponds are only temporary. In fact (bear with me while I geek out and dust off a fact from my engineering days), the second law of thermodynamics tells us that entropy, which is a measure of disorder, is always increasing. In other words, our world is always moving toward chaos and decay. This is the scientific explanation for why I have to pick up the same toys from my living room floor five times a day.

Brokenness is found in every aspect of creation because of the fall. So it only stands to reason that the peace of God, which acts against the sin and darkness of this world, must be a very powerful force, not passive and empty as we may assume.

This discussion reminds me of the time Jesus sailed across the sea with his twelve disciples. (Read the whole story in Mark 4:35-41.) After Jesus falls asleep in the back of the boat, a powerful storm kicks up. Huge waves and gusts of wind threaten to sink or capsize the boat. The disciples cry out to Jesus and waken him. They are properly freaked out. With three words that carry the power and force of an eternal kingdom, the sea is stilled. “Quiet! Be still!” Peace returns to the waters immediately. Can we say the force that stilled the waters is passive, weak, or little to be desired?

This is the powerful peace available to you and I through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us it surpasses all understanding because it’s nothing we can explain in human terms (Philippians 4:7). The power that brought about ultimate peace, the reconciliation between God and man, is the power that defeated death and darkness. 

Peace is not a stopping point on the highway to bigger and better experiences. God’s powerful peace means we can look forward to a day without sickness, war, or hate. The powerful peace ushered in by Jesus means we have hope of living with him forever.

Peace gives us reason to say “it is well with my soul,” when the world crumbles around us.

I’d love to know in the comments—what ideas come to mind when you think about corn? Oops, I mean peace!