"You heard me when I called, O God of my righteousness. You strengthened my heart when I was in distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
"I will both sleep and rest in peace, for you alone, O Lord, cause me to dwell in hope." Psalm 4:2, 9This psalm made me think a lot about what God's peace is. Of course, every Sunday we are reminded that this peace surpasses all understanding, but, at the same time, we can still take some time to contemplate it.
Today, at least in American culture, there doesn't seem to be much room for peace. We are constantly on our way to somewhere, usually in pursuit of money or in pursuit of a way to show off that money. We're concerned about the latest health fad, despite what we may say about the pundits who preach them to begin with. We need to satisfy all our wants. We strive for more time to focus on our social media presence or our knowledge of current events, regardless of whether they are things reported by Al-Jazeera or TMZ. This time that we strive for is something we are even willing to sacrifice our presence at church for, let alone our personal devotion to God.
Of course, another way of looking at this lack of space for peace in our lives is by our need to be correct. We can no longer have civilized discussions. We don't like to agree to disagree. We love going to coffee shops with our friends to talk about how another circle of friends is messed up in its thinking. We love to make fun of other cultures we don't understand. We also love to get into arguments whenever people we hold dear (if even for just a minute) disagree with us. We take out words that we'd never use, weapons we'd never have, or armies we'd prayed we never use in order to assert our opinions.
How can we involve peace into our lives? I mean, if this psalmist can talk about how great it is to dwell in hope in a way that allows her/him to rest in peace, surely there's a way to it.
God's peace has many forms. As I make my way through reading the Bhagavad Gita, I learn even more about what peace means. Meditation comes in so many different ways, and even our greatest Judeo-Christian writers write poignantly about how important it is to meditate/pray. I feel that peace can come to us in many ways that we can incite arguments - there are embers burning that we can decide to kindle. No one way works for everyone. For some, the opportunity for peace is the silence in between each petition during the Prayers of the People. It's the chant against a drone of cantors standing before a triangular, wooden stand. It's the invocation of an ancient syllable/prayer in the middle of one's room. It's the sound of a guitar strumming in the darkness illuminated by votive candles arranged in an icon. It's the reading of a psalm amidst an anthology of rage, anger, love, forgiveness, and everything else in between.
When we take a moment to expand on these opportunities for peace, we submit ourselves to peace, allowing it to come into us and to rule over us, manifesting itself in many different ways: in rest, in hope, in wisdom (Proverbs 2:10-11), and in salvation (John 15:4).
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