Peace and Ash Wednesday

As we are in the middle of our “Fruit of the Spirit” series, I don’t want to neglect to discuss peace this week. However, it is also Ash Wednesday today, which is a day that we are called to begin Lent -- a time of reflection, preparation, and sacrifice. We are to begin “preparing the way for the Lord,” and to remember all of the sacrifices that He made for us during His time on Earth. In response, many Christians choose to make a small sacrifice as well, for the 40 days leading up to Easter, symbolic of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert. (For example, I am giving up having the radio/podcast/audiobooks on when driving in the car, and I plan to use that time in intentional silence and prayer.)

While the thought of giving up the radio, Facebook, or desserts may not sound like an ultimately peaceful venture (and look out for the people giving up coffee—YIKES!), I think that Lent can definitely be a time when our peace increases. Much as Joy was not the absence of trouble, but the understanding that we can choose to trust God through these problems, Peace is very similar. Peace is not the absence of storms, but the choice to keep on our eyes on God through them.

In John 14, the very passage that took place during Holy Week, right after Christ and the Disciples shared their last meal together, the night of Christ’s arrest, Jesus was comforting his followers, and leading them in preparation for what was to happen to Him. Jesus says, in verse 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.”

If people have any doubt as to the fact that Jesus was more than human, all they have to do is look to this passage. Jesus knows that within the next 24 hours He will be arrested, on trial, beaten, and ultimately crucified, yet He spends His last hours convincing His disciples not to worry or be afraid. And sure, maybe He was also listening to those words Himself, but I cannot even begin to imagine the mental state where I would be, knowing all of that was coming for me! However, in the midst of these tumultuous and terrifying circumstance, Jesus spent the last few hours before His death teaching and praying, as way of sharing peace with others and bringing peace to Himself.

Peace is kind of like choosing not to worry. It’s trusting that God is in control, and making that choice that you are not going to toil, strive, fret, and busy yourself to the point of trying to take that control away from Him. It’s laying your problems down at the altar, placing them at the feet of Christ, and then walking away. For me, depending on the severity of the problem, this is not a “one and done” situation, either. I have to weekly, daily, even hourly give things back to God. Worry causes me to return to the altar and pick my problems back up, and peace directs me to go put them down again.

I wish I had some secret words of wisdom to share as to how to worry less, but this is honestly a lesson that I am still learning. (Also—spoiler alert—next week’s fruit is “patience,” and I’m even worse at that one!) I do really like the idea of peace, and it is for sure a place where I want to live. Something I read this week described peace not as a tranquil mountain scene, but as mother bird, with her wings over her babies, in a single tree being bowed to the ground by gusts of wind in the midst of a tornado. That is a picture to which I can relate. Life as a giant storm, things flying by in every direction, the uncertainty of whether your tree will survive the next few minutes, or will succumb to the pressure.

But friends, we can find peace. We are not responsible for keeping the tree upright, nor are we even the mother bird, having to take care of others. Thanks to the love and mercy of God, we get to be the baby birds, under the wings of a protector. Sure, we can look around and see problems at every turn. However, we can trust that there is One bigger than us fighting fiercely for us. God wants us to have peace and not to worry. As often as we allow it, that peace will surround us. If you feel like troubles are beginning to overwhelm, remember that you are under the wings of a loving God, and find the rest that only He can give.