The Tension of Peace
By Kathy Silvie
Kathy is the former Director of Christian Education at Edgewood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She is a specialist in children's ministry, a working mom, and "a woman at the well."

Peace
No more war, foreigners will tend your fields, dress your grapes (Isaiah)
Lions and kids will lie down together (Rev.)
My peace I give to you (John)
I will wipe away every tear (Rev.)

We look for this peace in the world today, but there is none to be found. No peace in the Darfur region of the Sudan, where, according to returning missionaries, the brutality of genocide is taking place, even with little notice since the government of the Sudan forbids humanitarian aid and foreign press. No peace in North Korea's infamous Camp 22 where, according to defectors, unspeakable inhumanity is inflicted upon men, women and children who wear the brand of the enemy. No peace, surely, in Iraq. Continuous news broadcasts bring the carnage of war into our very living rooms. "How goes the war?" I asked my husband Saturday morning. "Not good", was his grim reply. Speaking as a proud parent of an army of one (so says the sticker on my windshield), my heart is more than a little troubled.

The subject begs a question: Has there ever been peace in the world? Truth be known, no. From the first sin of Adam, since the downfall of man, peace has been an elusive promise. It is a hope for the young, a dream for the old. If you're looking for peace in the world, that is. Peace among mankind. That sort of peace, because of the sin of mankind, is unattainable. But there is Peace in the Word, peace between you and God. When Jesus spoke the words, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you..." (John 14:27), He was preparing his disciples for work that would surely deprive them of personal physical peace. He knew it; they had to know it. But he encouraged them. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me..." (John 14:1). From the accounts of returning missionaries, the world seems no closer to the peace as described in Revelation than were Jesus' own disciples. If we confine our reading to the news headlines and the text crawlers of the TV screen then our hearts will be most assuredly troubled. We will neither have nor give any peace. Worldwide peace? The wait will be long; I don't have that kind of time. I don't have that kind of control.

So what do we do? Sit and sob? Not an option, according to Jesus' instruction to His disciples. Listen to what Jesus taught them throughout His ministry: Let not your hearts be troubled, kick the dust off your sandals and go to the next village, make disciples of every nation. Our action is our peace offering. Let peace be the focus of your life and you will attain it, even if it is only (for a time) in the ten-foot radius around your very being. "My peace I leave with you" says Jesus. Take the peace of Jesus Christ, and pass it on. The world just might marvel at our passing the peace to each other, to the strangers in our gates, to the foreigner tending our fields, to the women at the well. And we will be at peace, and they will be at peace. Where peace is, God will be there also. God and peace, we cannot have one without the other.

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