Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give you… (John 14:27 NIV).
In my youth,
my main activity was Boy Scouts. I was
not a follower of Jesus, though I did have a private belief there is a God. My family only went to church on a few rare
occasions. I was in a church building most
every week however since Troop 150 met in a church in Annandale, Virginia. We had a premier troop thanks to two
extremely dedicated leaders, and I learned much in Boy Scouts which has benefited me my entire life. After years
of hard work as a Boy Scout, I completed all of the work to gain the rank of
Eagle minus an interview with an Eagle Scout review committee, and an interview
with a minister. This was back in the
early 1980’s, and I think they discontinued that minister interview requirement soon after. A meeting was set up between myself a
minister of the church where our troop meet every week.
Though
meeting a minister was foreign to me, I was not nervous, rather prepared to
discuss what a good Boy Scout I had been as I approached the finish line. I was prepared to talk about my morality, and
I had come up with some excuse as to why my family did not go to church,
figuring he would ask those questions.
Yet he did not ask any such questions, yet he was extremely reserved,
and only asked me some questions about my involvement in Troop 150. He said nothing about God, and he did not
pray with me. It was a short and rather
uninteresting interview.
Before the
interview, I had to wait a few minutes for the minister to become
available. I stood in the hallway
outside of the main office area. That
area of the church was on the other side of the medium sized church where our
Boy Scout troop met every Monday night in the Hughes Fellowship Hall, plus the
offices were on the second floor whereas the fellowship hall was on the first
floor. I had only been up by the offices
once or twice in passing. On the north
side of the hallway was a long window where you could look down into the church
courtyard. Of all of the times I had
been at meetings at the church, I had never closely looked at the
courtyard. I sat staring at it out of
the window. I began thinking of how
peaceful it looked. I considered
spending time in that courtyard would bring peace apart from the world which
has so much strife. As a sixteen year
old, I considered that having access to such a courtyard would bring
peace. I considered that people who work
for churches were blessed with an extra opportunity for peace.
Ironically,
after following Jesus for twenty-four years, I have been shocked how much
strife there is in some churches I have worshiped in; strife which results from
disagreements regarding core beliefs about God among various members of a given
church. Genuine peace seems to be lacking
in some churches, even if it is hidden under the surface.
And I came
to assume church employees have more peace than anyone in the world back when I
was a Boy Scout, yet after serving as a youth pastor, I have learned that
pastors who proclaim the Gospel and who adhere to the teachings of Jesus can be
subject to much criticism since there are some people in some churches who advocate
church or denomination traditions over the teachings of Jesus as accurately
preserved in Scripture, or people in a church might have drastically different
interpretations of Biblical teachings.
And any
disputing aside, most pastors have to deal with so many people, I do not see
how pastors get much “peace” at all. In
this electronic day and age, a pastor must have to work even harder to escape
to a church courtyard just to get a forty-five minute peaceful lunch.
Seven years
after that time of longingly looking into the church courtyard, I gave my heart
to Jesus, and I began a journey in this world following Him. And in these years of journeying, I have
learned an important lesson; Peace does not come from a place or a situation,
rather Peace comes from a Person: Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Of course circumstances influence whether you
are having a week that is more smooth or more rough. Circumstances are important, and they can be
horrible. Yet true peace is a state of
the heart, and true peace can be known even when things are horrible.
I am a
student of the Bible, and I know the reason for suffering in this world is
because people have been separated from God and because we all do things
counter to the will of God. But I do not
know why God allows so much suffering.
It is humbling. It is a subject
where I must simply trust God. I do know
that being unified with God is possible by believing in Jesus. And I do know there have been times in my
life when I have had a peace from Jesus that likewise surpassed my
understanding. Scripture teaches that in
the love of Jesus, there is peace. And
the reason why is that Jesus Christ is risen from the grave. Though crucified on a cross as an atonement
for the sins of anyone, Jesus was resurrected on the third day, and He is alive
right now. In glory in heaven, he is
also working through the Holy Spirit in the world. I do not always sense that, yet that is what
the Bible teaches. Jesus suffered more
than we can comprehend because He loves all people. Jesus Christ loves you. Turn to Him and you will have strife you
would not have had otherwise, yet there is disaster you will be spared,
starting with spiritual death, and you will always have peace available in your
heart from Jesus. Shalom. The peace of Jesus be with you today.
Hunter
Irvine
