Peace that Passes Understanding

The world can be a chaotic place, and in recent months, it has felt even more chaotic and troubling.

I’ve found it hard to balance being informed and needing to tune out for my own sanity.

Rabbi Irwin Keller wrote a prayer called “A prayer before reading the news.” In it, he prays “let me learn what I need to know in order to be of my greatest use, without being overwhelmed by despair.”

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, overworked, OVER IT!

How can we give it OUR best, when fear, worry, and anxiety can get the best of us?

Apostle Paul wrote to the early church in Philippi, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

I remember when I first heard about this “Peace that passes understanding.”

When I was a child, we sang a song in Sunday School about this peace that Paul talks about. The song was about having “Joy Joy Joy down in my heart.” But it went on to sing about having “The peace that passes understanding” down in my heart. It is only with Peace that we can find our great Joy.

What is this Peace? What is this Peace that Passes Understanding?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid” because he brings us this Peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you!”

As a Jewish teacher, Jesus knew this concept of Peace as Shalom. Shalom can be a common greeting, but it’s meaning is Peace – not just the absence of conflict, but a sense of wholeness, completeness, and soundness. Frederick Buechner, one of my favorite theologians, said that for Jesus, “Peace seems to have meant not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love.”

How do you find this Peace? How do you recenter yourself to experience this calmness, this absence of worry, enveloping yourself in this peace that passes understanding, this peace that seems utterly unreasonable in the face of all that is going on?

Recently, I found that I needed some grounding. I took a road trip to Americus, visited Koinonia, and reminded myself of Habitat’s roots and the importance of our work – seeing this piece of farmland that was intended to be a Demonstration Plot for the Kingdom of God.

How can your work be a demonstration plot for God’s Kingdom? How does your work show the presence of God’s love?

Frederick Buechner also wrote, “Our own happiness, our own peace, can never be complete until we find some way of sharing it with people who… have no happiness and know no peace.”

I think reminding ourselves of our purpose, our mission, our vocation of doing what God has called us to do, and then DOING IT, is a way to center ourselves on this Peace.

Another key to claiming this Peace is also found in Paul’s words – Paul tells us to pray with Thanksgiving! Finding gratitude in what we have been given is surely a way to quell fear and anxiety. Being grateful helps us to live into our joy.

As you continue your day today, find your gratitude. Find your purpose. Find your place of Shalom. As you go forward to do the work you are called to do, may you each find how you show God’s love in the world; and may you find your place of Shalom, that place of wholeness, completeness, and inner peace which gives you strength to do the work that you are called to do. And may this peace recenter you on the One who gives it.

Amen.