Christ our peace

BY RHODA JORE

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Peace is confused with safety.” What does that mean?

I think it is easy to connect peace with the absence of something—war, chaos, suffering, relational discord, or just plain noise. If it is best understood that way, then yes, being at peace would mean to be safe and secure, to be quiet.

But is that a full picture of the peace of Christ, of God, that is described in Scripture? The peace that transcends understanding and guards our hearts and our minds (Philippians 4:7)? The peace that He promises to give us at all times and in every way (II Thessalonians 3:16)? Do we know and understand this peace most fully when we are safe and secure, when no harm or suffering is disturbing us?

I wonder if it is best understood not when suffering is absent, but when it is present … when troubles are many, when turmoil in us and around us threatens to overwhelm. Maybe it is then that this promised peace of Christ, the kind that is different from what the world offers, is best known.

One of the times in my life in which I experienced the peace of Christ most vividly and powerfully was the first time our home was broken into by a group of thieves in the middle of the night. It is terrible to wake up to the sound of breaking glass and the thud of many footsteps coming nearer. The peace that flooded and overwhelmed me as I scooped up my youngest daughter, Evie, and sat on her bedroom floor, watching the thieves ransack her room and answering her bewildered questions, truly surpassed understanding. There was no explanation for it, no reason to feel peace in the face of something horrible and evil. His presence with me, His peace covering me, were His promises fulfilled. “... my peace I give you … do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

Christ does not promise us safety and security during our life on earth, but He promises suffering. Where, then, is peace when suffering is present?

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). In Christ alone. He is our peace! Thanks be to God.

Jore is an AFLC missionary serving in Uganda.