Editorial: As profound as peace

Profound: “difficult to fathom or understand;” “extending far below the surface;” “coming from, reaching to, or situated at a depth” (Merriam-Webster.com).

“The peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

“That passes all understanding.” In a word, profound.

This is the peace we want now, because the peace this world offers doesn’t reach very far. This world’s peace isn’t deeply rooted and is easily uprooted. It’s as fickle as our pride, bitterness, malice and greed that expects peace on our shifting terms.

We need, we long for peace more profound than that.

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Profound peace isn’t free-floating. It’s not a sentiment available to those who can find their way to it. It emanates from God, who secures it and gives it to us in and through Jesus.

Profound peace isn’t unrelated. It’s not detached from the circumstances of our lives, but meets the circumstances of our prayer, petition and thanksgiving presented to God.

Profound peace isn’t soft. It guards our hearts and minds within a ferocious and fearsome world. It is as formidable as Jesus, who bled and died and rose again.

We need, we long for that peace.

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We need this profound peace that doesn’t make sense, that is foolishness to this world, that seems aloof, naïve.

We need this profound peace, so when the wind blasts the leaves off the trees, we take a deep breath and bud out again in the spring.

We need this profound peace amid cancer diagnoses and treatment. We need this peace amid denominational disputes. We need this peace through vicious political seasons. We need this peace amid family conflict. We need this peace amid war.

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We cannot manufacture this peace. Our consumerism will never lead us to it, but only away from it with seductive and empty promises.

We cannot bring it about by force. No military has that much power.

We cannot legislate it. No politics is up to the task.

Even our own religious striving won’t reach far enough, because religion is too shallow.

The profound peace we need originates in the One who is whole in himself, and all our longing for that peace is the call to return to him.

This profound peace is wholeness. Not our wholeness alone, but the wholeness of all God’s creation. Which means our peace is wrapped up in all the rest of God’s creation—each other and the seventh-day rest, God’s Sabbath made for us, not us for it.

This profound peace—God’s peace—holds us together when all else takes and breaks and pulls us apart.

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Profound peace is more than the absence of war and disease. It goes beyond political and economic stability. It is more than the end of religious disputes and family turmoil.

But these are the things occupying so much of our attention here and now. These are the things so many of us give the most time and our best efforts. And while each holds its own importance, not one of them can produce the peace we need and long for.

Yet, in the midst of all such unrest, we can be and are sustained by God’s peace. Likewise, the gospel flows from the wellspring of God’s peace unabated in and through this world’s unrest. This is the profundity of the peace we seek, that the good news of redemption and reconciliation cannot be thwarted by the unrest of this world.

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In your holiday rushing and spending,
in your anxiety about family,
in your aggravation about the news,
in your loneliness,
in your busyness,
in your disappointment,
in your search for peace—calm assurance, rootedness, rest—
in and with all of it, come to God.
Dig deep into the profound mystery who passes all understanding.

Dig by seeking God, by asking God, by thanking God. Dig, trusting God to provide, trusting God with the results—all while it seems every last leaf will be stripped from the trees and that there’s no chance of next spring’s green again.

God’s profound peace is deep enough for that, because it’s not dependent on us or the condition of our world. That fact alone is enough to begin to know the wholeness as profound as peace.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed are those of the author.