Peace

Peace… that’s a topic that I hadn’t thought much about until attending Messiah College. Messiah is a small Christian college located in central Pennsylvania. It is rooted in the anabaptist tradition which means it holds “peace loving” values. Up until that point I had had very little experience with passivism. This issue was not something that I had considered while I was growing up. That all changed when I was bombarded with peace-loving doctrine that infiltrated every aspect of the teaching that I was receiving. I felt very conflicted in this environment because I had never thought of myself as a passivist. I had always felt that peace was better than war but I was not sold on war or violence never being the answer. I did not see God being completely peaceful as I read the bible. I saw countless examples of acts of violence that seemed very justified and even righteous. I knew that God is the same today as he was at the beginning of time and he sure did not seem to always practice peace. I knew that there had to be something more to this than that violence is wrong.

The first step for me in understanding this issue was understanding what peace is. I used the context in which I had heard that word used to help me gain insight. I realized that peace is seen as the absence of conflict. Being at peace means there is no turbulence, or at least that is how I observed those around me practicing it. Often, I had it explained to me that as Christians we should look to the New Testament to be the guiding force in helping me learn to live as a Christian. The view that the Old Testament should not be read as literally as the New Testament was also a key part to justifying these beliefs about peace. As I look to the New Testament, I do not see Christ or God the father fully embrace peace as it seems to be defined. In Matthew 21, Jesus violently cleared out the temple after it had become a market. This is the first example that stands out to me. Then in Acts 5, God strikes down Ananias and Sapphira for lying. This was a huge red flag for me. But if believers are supposed to reflect God and we are supposed to bear the fruits of the Spirit and one of those fruits is peace how do we reconcile this? What is the peace that we are supposed to pursue?

I found my own answer to this question on my first ever backpacking trip. It was a trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park in south Texas. Part way through the trip we were put on a solo. I was given a tarp, a sleeping bag, a mat, a little food, and some water and I sat by myself for about 40 hours. As I sat on my mat in the desert, I learned what true peace is. I sat and practiced learning to silence my mind in the presence of my Creator and felt his overwhelming peace wash over me. In a single moment I gained a new understanding of the peace that we as believers are called to pursue. It is linked not to what we as people choose to do but to sitting in the presence of God and feeling fully known and accepted by him. That is truly an amazing place to be, and that is what I believe we are called to.