A Piece of Peace

A Piece of Peace

            I am 52 years old.  I have 1 wife, 2 jobs, 3 kids, 6 grandkids, and 3 fantasy football teams (none of which is doing particularly well).  There is always something going on.  In the rare moments when there isn’t a commitment to be somewhere or do something, there is an invitation barreling down the tracks, “Can you watch the kids?” “Do you want to go to dinner with so and so?” Constant contact, continual pressure.  It seems there is a never-ending supply of needs to be met.  Lost in the whirlwind is the time to stop and breath.  Where do you find it and how do you make it a priority?

            Let me take you back to the mountain top, not Mel Brooks and his 20 commandments from his “History of the World Part 1” but the actual 10 Commandments that Moses came down with in Exodus 20:8-11. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” 

            If it is on the stone tablet it is pretty important.  If God specifically blesses something as He does at the end of this passage, I think it is worth pursuing.  God doesn’t just want us to take a moment, He wants us to take a whole day.  I sometimes, okay most times, find a whole day is awfully hard to squeeze into my schedule.  So, where do I find peace in the chaos?  You start by examining your life.  Thou shalt not murder, Exodus 8:13.  Thou shalt not steal, Exodus 8:15.  We don’t have any trouble working those into our day-to-day, and those are way down the list after keeping the Sabbath holy, which most of us, me included, are perfectly comfortable blowing off.  The only directive higher up the food chain deals directly with our relationship with God Himself.  

            So, with God Himself is a good place to start.  The Sabbath came directly from Him but it is really the other 6 days that I wanted to focus on, when we aren’t divinely directed to relax.  The idea of finding peace in non-stop activity is so important.  Period.  If we don’t get any peace, we become cranky, mean-spirited, selfish, and generally all sorts of names I can’t put in a family friendly blog.  Peace isn’t as elusive as we think.  One of the great things about peace is it is very portable.  You can take it anywhere you want.  It doesn’t take up any space or make your load any heavier.  As a matter of fact, it makes your load lighter.  The even better thing about it is peace at the highest level has been offered to us as a gift.  If someone was to offer you a Lamborghini for free you would take it in a second.  A second later your car insurance rates would sky-rocket.  If you were offered Super Bowl tickets you would miraculously take the Monday off after you used them.  Why are we so reluctant to take Christ up on His offer found in John 14:27?  “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.”  We not only struggle with the first part, receiving His peace; we muff the second part and let our hearts be troubled.  We let our hearts be troubled over big and little stuff, important and really stupid things.  It’s almost as if we really go out of our way looking for things to trouble our hearts. Get the first half right and the second half will fall into place.  The problem with a lot of Christians is we settle for half a promise, for just a piece of the peace instead of all of Jesus’ peace that will settle our hearts.  There is an inclination to settle because we don’t want to inconvenience God.  2 Corinthians 9:8 “God can bless you with everything you need, and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others.” (CEB) indicates that it shouldn’t be a concern.  God doesn’t want us to do things half way and this applies to our peace as well.  

            Trust that God wants us to have fullness of life and fullness of peace.  Slivers are for almonds, not for sons and daughters of the Most High God.  When things get dicey, remember the offer Jesus has on the table, “My peace I give you.”  Take Him up on it and grab it with both hands.  He made the offer so we can take it.  Let’s start living with 100% peace like Jesus did.