Shalom Living - A Practical Path to Daily Peace

NOTE:  Whether it’s the bestselling ‘The Anxious Generation’, the timeless plots from Shakespeare revealing humanity’s seeming addiction to striving, the current political turmoil and our response to it, or the current explosive rise in loneliness and depression, its clear that we are collectively hungry for a different and better way of living.  This short series on domination and shalom offers both an exposure to the roots of our problem (as seen in the last post), and an articulation of a way forward: the way of peace

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. - Jesus Christ

And the peace of God which is beyond understanding will become a wall of protection around your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus - Paul the Apostle

One of the most poignant moments in the story of Jesus is when he approaches Jerusalem at the beginning of his final week:  when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

In a world where the domination paradigm prevails, anxiety will always be tightly woven into the cultural fabric, with the result that our hearts are hardened and our peace stolen.  The things which steal our peace are everywhere. As one author notes, “There are "terrorists" abroad in the world, with dreadful weapons within their reach, and there is a System in place in the world which—almost unnoticed—has gained control over most of the fundamentals of life: food, jobs, welfare security, health and safety measures, protection (or not) of the environment, and information about what is going on…” As a result our world is filled with anxious people. Some are seeking to gain more (which, for some, means ‘enough to eat’, and for others, ‘another million’). Others are trying to protect what they already have.  All of these induce anxiety and (often) conflict.  As Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation” and the word for ‘tribulation’ in the Bible’s Greek language means ‘pressure.’

Thankfully Jesus doesn’t end the sentence there.  He goes on to say we can ‘take heart’ for (he) has ‘overcome the world.’  But what does that mean for us, and how can we practically apply it in our daily lives?

This is where Jesus’ invitation for us to be people of peace comes into play.  His call to peace is embedded in a larger narrative within Judaism, wherein the God of the Bible declares that we’re made to enjoy a holistic, all encompassing peace - with God, ourselves, and (as far as possible) others as our default mode.  There’s more.  We’re made to impart the sense of internal peace and shalom we’ve gained as we become channels of peace, pouring it out into the world wherever and however we’re able.  Since the end of the story is peace, and every tear dried from every eye, we’re invited now, in our daily lives, to bring some of that future reality into the present as heralds of a coming fuller peace

We all agree that there’s an anxiety problem in our world, particularly in our western cultures, and its clear nobody is immune from its affects.  We even agree that there’s a domination problem (see previous post), though we differ in our assessment of who’s perpetrating the domination.  Knowing the system is broken, its hard to see why we can’t just shout ‘enough’ at the violence and be done with it.  We neither want, nor need, the striving. Why not just quit? The problem is that its never enough to renounce domination because exorcising one evil system doesn’t assure that shalom will fill the vacuum.

Perhaps you remember the Arab Spring, that period of deposing authoritarian leaders throughout the Middle East and North Africa?  Those heady days of initial freedom were eventually displaced by the rise of new authoritarian regimes in what came to be known as the Arab Winter, because if you’re just ‘anti domination’ you will never find peace.  You need a positive vision for shalom, and this is true both personally and collectively.  So here are some insights from what I call the ‘pyramid of peace.’ This structure is sequential, with a foundation at the bottom and ‘the end of history’ at the top.

We must begin with `peace with God’ because that’s where we find the root of both the problem and solution.  The Genesis story of eating the forbidden fruit is fundamentally a story of humans seeking autonomy from their Creator.  The first couple chose to reject boundaries in their relationship with God and then, having failed, felt shame and as a result ran and hid from God.

In of our bent thinking, we presume its better to be on our own. But when faced with the consequences of being on our own in this challenging world, we become afraid.  We react to the fear with flight (escaping with excessive sleep, drinking, binge watching, et al) or fight (resorting to the very sort of violent words Jesus warns against, or worse, resorting to violent actions). All the while, the vestige of Adam inside us has this dread sense of fear and shame, believing that, if there is a God, then God is surely mad at us.  So, like little children running to our room, we run and hide, either through carefully constructed atheisms, or house of cards cynicisms, such as elevating the failings of ‘Christians’ (and there are many) as the basis for unbelief. However, people doing dumb things in Jesus name doesn’t invalidate the person and work of the wonderful matchless wisdom, beauty, peace, and generosity of Jesus.  This is just one of many forms of rejecting God as a reality, and in our rejection we, indeed, end up feeling like we are, indeed, on our own.

And if we’re on our own, shalom be damned.  It’s up to us to protect ourselves and fight for what’s ours, or even what’s not ours but we feel should be ours.  Thus are revolutions, and regimes, and oppressions, and civil wars, and coups, and ‘hostile takeovers’ born, leaving pain and calamity in their wake every time.

There are two truths that can, like a cold shower, wake us up to a different, truer perspective, giving our spirits a reset and opening the pathway for peace.

Truth: We’re not alone.

The same Genesis narrative that reveals the human propensity to deny and run from God also portrays God as actively seeking humans.  The first question in the Bible, asked by God, is ‘Adam where are you?’   David, the shepherd/king is able to declare that God is not only creator, but a loving shepherd for humanity, which evokes actions of care, provision, compassion, and companionship.  One of the declared names of Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’ which means, ‘God with us.’

To believe that we’re not alone requires faith, just as it requires faith to believe that we are alone.  But if something is true, its true whether we feel it not, believe it or not, like it or not.  As a Bible teacher for the past 40 years, I’ve never called people to blind faith.  I’ve challenged people to consider the evidence for this or that, and then put their faith dollar down and live consistent with their alleged beliefs (which, by the way, all of us must do).  You don’t need to KNOW with bold font and confidence.  After all, faith is ‘the evidence of things not seen’  But you do believe something. For lots of reasons, I’m putting my money on the existence of God and the notion that God is knowable, not as a concept or force, but as a being.

Those who experience the reality of a relationship with this creator are laying a foundation for peace.  Never alone was a constant theme of David’s in his poetic Psalms as he asked, poetically, ‘where shall I run from your spirit?’ in order to show us that, whether we believe it or not, feel it or not, like it or not, we’re never alone.

After the death of my father at 53 , and later my sister at 46, and along the way losing many friends, I was at risk of a deep despair over the impermanence of relationships, and initially suffered depression as a result.  The singular greatest source of comfort in my life (and thus the most significant component of my faith) became the promise and reality of Christ’s assured presence in my life. As Jesus said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’

Beyond the day to day practical sense of peace that comes from companionship with an unconditionally loving Christ, I find a great sense of peace in seeing this as an eternal companionship. As a pastor I’ve been at the bedside of many and can tell you that I’ve seen spirits soaring with joy right in the midst of profound suffering just before death.  This isn’t accidental.  It’s a person opening the door to eternal realities as the door to this temporal life is closing, and it gives me great hope.

These promises, and others like them in the Bible, are a reality to me, enough so that I find a bedrock sense of peace in knowing that whatever highs or lows will come my way in the months and years ahead, whatever people may think of me, whatever friendships or possessions I may gain or lose, there is one certainty that I can live by: I am never alone, and the one who is always with me wants my authentic presence, not my dressed up ‘Christian self’. This God can handle my doubts, failures, fear, anger, and frustration.  I just need to keep showing up.

I’ve written a couple of books to help you gain the tools for showing up.  You can find the most recent one here.  But all the peace and confidence that comes from knowing I’m never alone only works if I can be authentic and naked before God.  That’s why the second truth is equally important.

Truth: God’s not mad at us.

This is perhaps the most controversial part of the path to peace.  I’m going out on a limb here and declaring that God is not angry at you, or me, or anyone.  Grieved? Brokenhearted? Incensed at the injustices perpetrated in this world, often in the name of God or Christ?  Yes to all of those.

But if we take the Bible seriously, then we need to deal with that pesky little declaration in I John 2 where we’re told that God is the propitiation for our sins, and nor for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.  I invite you to put your thinking hat on for a moment and consider two things here:

‘Propitiation’ is what happens when an offensive or upsetting matter is dealt with in a way that satisfies the offended person, so the short answer in John 2 is that God isn’t angry because whatever injustice or offense or betrayal that had been perpetrated against God by humanity was dealt with on the cross.  When Jesus said ‘it is finished’ on the cross, he meant exactly that. God is not angry. There are lots of different theories among theologians about how Jesus' life and death connect with the ‘satisfaction’ of God’s anger, but the most important thing isn’t the how, it’s the what, and the what is that God isn’t angry.

For we who believe this, it creates a sense that our relationship with God is safe. Rather than running and hiding out of fear (as I did during my childhood after breaking a huge window by throwing a baseball in the house), or ignoring/resisting that hard conversation about my doubts, fears, anger, vulnerability, I can be naked before God, exactly who I am, and know that God loves me infinitely.

Truth: This Peace is Unconditional

It's obvious that our days on earth aren't endless bliss. Perhaps its obvious, too, that believing that life should be an endless sense of ease and utopian bliss is a surefire way of adding to and intensifying our suffering. Rather than wishing our job, health, political reality, relationship challenges were gone, we'd do better to embrace Jesus' word that 'in this world you will have tribulation.' Because when we accept tribulation as a reality and go deep in developing a real relationship with Christ, we find that there is, indeed, a peace that is both unmoored from our circumstances and beyond human understanding. That peace then takes root in our souls and works itself out into our bodies, including our sleep, blood pressure, anxiety levels, capacity to be present with others, and so much more (there are, of course, medical considerations as well... talk to your doctor).

Without this foundational peace, we're stuck in either flight or fight. Either way, we are looking for an escape from the present when in reality, this present moment is the only moment we have for embodying peace, and hope, and love. May we become people who take the peace of Christ seriously and live out from it on a moment by moment basis. I welcome your thoughts.