PEACE: God's Gift Which Passeth All Understanding

By Anna Caldwell

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

This prayer for peace was offered in every church service of my childhood. As a young person, it was a long-winded jumble of unnecessary words. Peace was so obvious...pictures of Baby Jesus, no war, school bullies at bay, gas crisis ended, …gees, grown-ups, can’t you get that? As an adult, I’m SO grateful these words are carved on my heart and mind. They come back to me when I don’t know how pray, and need words. Thank you God for mom and dad, for making me go to church.

We don’t get much peace, do we? Snatches every now and then. When I was in college I had no peace. Like for four years, I was a disaster.

Take that back - I had one moment of peace so profound it’s a benchmark in my Christian witness. One particularly awful night, I took my misery to the campus chapel. On my knees, sobbing, mercifully alone, I was so desperate for equilibrium that my need to understand why this was my condition ceased. My heart begged for respite I knew no human work could give me. I got it. For several moments I experienced a physical peace that was just as if someone had blanketed me. I was stilled, completely whole, calm. Later, I learned my mom and her friends were praying for me at the same time.

That moment of peace didn’t change my circumstances; I was still a total wreck. God had a lot of work cut out for me, and He still does! But, over the years, that personal, physical experience of peace and the well-worn childhood prayer for peace have co-mingled, and press on my Christian person every day.

At 44, here’s what I think about peace:

God’s peace is a gift, that “passeth all understanding.” I can’t explain the extraordinary comfort I felt in those crucial moments, years ago. But it was real.

Peace requires a sort of arrest of “our hearts and minds.” It is absolutely our work to train our Christian minds in thought, word and deed: memorize scripture, pore over God’s word, employ our best Christian choices and practices. It is equally our work to pray humbly from the heart, to grasp that we do not fully control our circumstances; to ask earnestly that God’s will is done, and then... stand back!