Real Hope: Peace That Passes All Understandingنموونە

Give Peace A Chance

The notion of peace can be so diverse. At a temporal level, people find it in everything from a quiet cup of tea, a crackling campfire, a beautiful sunset, or even headphones blasting out heavy metal. On a global scale, you can have a peace treaty that could save millions of lives or signify the end of a world war.

But then, we have the peace referred to in today’s reading. The big kahuna! ‘The peace of God’! So powerful, so effectual, yet so baffling that it ‘surpasses all understanding.’ Many of us know today’s scripture, but how do you get a handle on it and, more importantly, get some of that life-changing peace in your life?

It’s worth noting that this scripture starts with a very important little three-letter word: ‘And.’ So, as is often the case, it’s pertinent to look at the few verses before where we find a kind of short roadmap that helps us to arrive at verse 7.

Verse 4: ‘Rejoice’ – us having an attitude of joy.

Verse 5: ‘Show gentleness’ – our witness to others.

Verse 6: ‘Pray’ – our relationship with God.

These bring us to a place where we are encompassed in the peace of God. What an awesome gift. Talk about ‘inner peace’! But as for understanding it, well, it does say that it surpasses all understanding, and I suppose that ‘all’ includes you and me as well. So, relax. We can’t and never will fully understand it. That’s the point. It’s all about trust. Think of this: whenever I get on an aircraft, I don’t ‘understand’ aerodynamics, engineering, or thrust versus lift. I don’t need to. My job is to trust and enjoy the ride. Peace out.

Written by ROBBIE PARKIN