As the third week of Advent comes to an end, I reflect upon Joy. This is nothing new for me. I’ve been considering joy for some time now. Perhaps well over a year. It has become a fruit on which I have given my focus. I have discovered the joy of the Lord is my strength because He is my Joy.
Joy is rooted in faith, founded in trust, and discovered in gratefulness.
However, I struggled a bit with the second week of advent, for a conflict arose up within me which was not quiet. My spirit was stirred to consider and contemplate. Peace has seldom been an issue for me. People have told me I carry a calming presence and others have sought me out for the peace that say I provide. However, a mild presence and quiet calm are not necessarily peace. Peace is not always found in the cloudless storm free sky.
Why Was I Struggling?
During the advent I read the same words, heard the same words over and over again. Words I had heard for years. Words I had sang since childhood. Words the angels proclaimed to the shepherds as they proclaimed the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to all men!” -Luke 2:14
But the words of Jesus spoken over thirty years later kept ringing in my ear.
“Think Not that I am come to send peace on the earth, but a sword.” ( Matthew 10:34)
I knew this conflict was not a contradiction. I knew sometimes Holy Spirit creates questions within us so we will search for the answer, seek HIM in absence of answers. And this is just what I did. I read the scriptures in context. Nothing. My spirit remain unsettled. I finally sat down with my notebook and a pen. I sat quietly until I heard…not a scripture, but a quote which stirred me since I first saw the movie First Night. In this movie, King Arthur tells Lancelot, “Sometimes there is a peace only to be found on the other side of war. If that war should come, I will fight it.”
I picked up my pen and began to write.
Deep peace is often hard won, whether we are fighting for external or internal peace. Once obtained, this peace can bring both resolution and liberation. But not always; for peace does not merely dwell in the absence of conflict. It can survive in even the harshest of circumstances. It does not ignore the chaos, for it is not ignorant. Instead peace creates rest in the midst of it. Peace understands the devastation, acknowledges the cost and forges ahead. Peace is far more valuable than silver or gold. It is a commodity highly sought and deeply valued. It is pursued in the bloodiest of battles.
Why, even the Prince of Peace was born of blood, for birth is no easy process. This was no silent night, no matter how holy. To sleep in heavenly peace He first had to struggle through the birth canal. Mary, our first lady, labored to bring him forth. She, like many women, mothers before and after her, pushed in anguish with all her effort to birth the Son of God. In the throes of this crusade there was not silence. All was not calm, nor was it bright.
Peace is not always silent. Sometimes peace screams and breaks the silence.
According to history, God had been silent for some time. No new prophets had arrived on the scene to carry God’s voice to the people. But on this night the Prince of Peace tore apart the silence with a cry as he exited the womb. He had come-not only as the Prince of Peace, but as a King who carried a sword. For he who was WORD MADE FLESH was indeed living and active, able to discern truth, and judge the hearts of men. (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17)
Peace, my friend, at least the Peace of Christ, is a controversial idea upon this planet; for it is not always silent. The word speaks. It is quick and powerful and like a double edged sword it divides-piercing to separate the soul from the spirit, the joints and marrow and able to judge the depths of our thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. It calls us to holiness, righteousness. The sword calls us to approach the throne of grace so we may receive mercy and find grace in our sinfulness and human weakness. Not everyone wants this grace and mercy. Not everyone desires to seek the one true Holy God. And thus the division. Division of brother against brother. Division between those who hear His voice and those who harden their hearts.
Yet THERE IS A PEACE! It is a peace the Father longs to bring to all upon the earth who fear His name. And it was not obtained easily. It is won only through Jesus who desires to “reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS.” (Colossians 1:15-20)
“Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest… (Hebrews 4:11)
So, today, I am thankful for the powerful sword of Christ forged in fire, which reveals and also puts to death those things in me which are not of Him, so that I may enter His rest and approach the throne of grace with such great mercy. This, my friend, is true peace.
The Inkwell Collections 