Advent Week 2 – Peace – Lisa Allgood

Peace…  A concept we all want and seek, one we talk about and debate and negotiate and redefine over and over, depending on our context – and yet one that is – oddly – really hard to define.

So of course I looked it up.  The Cambridge Dictionary defines peace as “freedom from war and violence, especially when people live and work together happily without disagreements”.  Well, yes… and…

Some associate peace with quietness, as in “I need some peace and quiet”.  Sometimes my quiet just brings about the musings and ramblings and ruminations that are, frankly, anything but peaceful.  We use the phrase “at peace” when we are in a certain situation, or – sorry – when someone has passed on. “Leaving someone in peace” sometimes really means “please go away”. “Peace of mind” usually means the need for closure of some kind. And “holding your peace” can mean not expressing your real thoughts or feelings.

None of those are sustainable or especially peaceful. They’re temporary and situational, at best.

But we have been asked to think of peace differently.

My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27 NIV

I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.                                                                                                                 John 14:27 MSG

The heart of Christ’s final words to His disciples, and to us today, is that we are never alone, and that we are one with all that has been created, and that His peace is trustworthy and lasting.  And that’s where I land… I am fully at peace when I stand in a place that is His creation, feeling His power in the place around me (making me feel less than insignificant – but at the same time, as big as all creation). Christ’s Peace is not found outside me, but in the way I relate to the world as I follow Christ, attained through the transformation that I find, over and over again, in the place I dwell with Him. It’s why I photograph (and travel so much).

I’m trying hard to have that peace happen every minute (it doesn’t, but I try).  So I’ll leave you with a few of the places where I have found the amazing peace that transcends all my feeble understanding – that place of surprised wonderment and joy and oneness and no-self-ness, the place where I can breathe and be. 

In those moments, I know why Paul’s greetings were always “grace and peace to you”,

in that order.

Because the only real Peace comes from the Giver of Grace. 

Blessed Advent.