Hopeful Peace

“We love because He first loved us.”—1 John 4:19 (RSV)

I think that, deep down, we all long for peace. And maybe even more than external peace, we all want an internal peace. We want the kind of peace no circumstance in the world can take away. The peace the martyrs had in the face of death.

Jesus is the One who promises us this peace, and yet, if you’re like me, peace can sometimes still remain elusive, even when you’re doing the work God calls us to do as His disciples. Sometimes, we just seem to be wearing ourselves out no matter how hard we try, and when that exhaustion hits and swipes away our peace, our joy and ability to love others goes with it. Confusion steps in. If Jesus promised us peace in the face of all trials, then why does it seem to be snatched away in our efforts to do His work?

I think the answer lies in our perspective and our motivation.

If we only make the sacrifice to get up early and help out at the parish fundraiser on Friday because we are counting on getting to sleep in on Saturday, we’re going to be disappointed—especially if our kid wakes us up at five in the morning on Saturday and we think we’ve somehow been cheated out of the perfect schedule we’ve planned.

The truth is, if we do God’s work placing our hope on perfect rest and peace in this world, we’re going to be disappointed. We weren’t made for this world. All our longings for God will never be completely satisfied until we reach Heaven, and that homesick ache we want so badly to be filled will never fully go away in this world… because we’re not home yet.

In a wonderful paradox, once we realize that, once we bank our hope on Heaven instead of the next Saturday we can sleep in or the next family vacation, we finally find the peace of the saints.

And once we find that peace—once we can finally understand the depths to which God loves us—once we are finally quenching our thirst with the Living Well that never runs dry—then we can do the work God calls us to do. And love as He loves.

Edited by Gabriella Batel