How to Have Peace, Peace, Where There is No Peace

The seeming paradoxes of God’s character are what keep me coming back to him again and again. I see too much complexity in the world to be content with a one-dimensional God or a God who is merely mercy, but not justice, peace, but not zealousness, divider, but not uniter, good, but not sovereign. God is all of those things and all at the same time. That is mysterious to me and very, very compelling. I don’t understand it and knowing I can’t and won’t ever understand it fully will either drive me away in despair or keep me coming back trying to understand where and how God is at work in the world.

The reality that we humans bear his image, that we were made to be like him, is what keeps me interested in human issues. How can we both love one another and disagree with one another? How can we vehemently stand against an issue while not demonizing a person who holds convictionally to that issue? How can we live in peace and unity while also recognizing and making restitution for terrible crimes against humans of all races and developmental stages of life?

I take great, great comfort from the prophet Jeremiah’s words from the Lord to his people:

“For from the least of them to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace" (Jer. 6:13,14 NASB).

The ESV version uses the word “lightly” instead of “superficially.” The point is that when we don’t finish the work, or do the work well, or apply pressure to the wound, we won’t stop the bleeding and we won’t heal the wound, and therefore we won’t have true peace.

This is hard for a peace-loving personality like me. I’d rather have superficial peace than real peace 99% of the time because it feels better than doing the real work of healing. The real work of healing is hard, it’s tiresome, it means pressure, it means messy wounds and messy bandages, and continuing the work until there’s real healing happening, until new skin appears—and if it still bears a scar, acknowledging that scar is real and real evidence of a real wound. I hope you’re making the connections here between a physical wound and the kinds of societal, political, religious wounds that exist in our culture today.

The real work of healing, especially in our own lives and homes, is almost insurmountable at times. I cannot heal what’s broken in society or the church, but I can make peace with my husband and set a table for those with whom I disagree. I can’t fix the environment, climate, poverty, or politics, but I can buy food grown as near to me as possible. I can’t fix abortion or the blight of racism on our country or mass incarceration, but I can love my neighbor. There are the small acts of kindness to our earth and neighbor that together with other small acts of kindness to our earth and neighbor, will lead to the good getting better, the bad getting worse, and then the reign of Jesus on earth.

These are complex things, as I said, which is why it’s so important for us to remember our God is a complex God. He IS a God of love for all people everywhere for all time, but he is also a God who created order and loves it too. And it isn’t loving for God to love people and leave them in disorder and disarray. He’s going to love us in our disorderliness and bring us back into rightness with him. That’s the gospel. And sometimes it hurts. But it’s the only way to true “Peace, peace.”

Here are a few pieces or audios that have encouraged me in this good work recently.

One of my favorite podcasts, OnBeing with Krista Tippet, held a conversation with Rev. Michael Curry of the Episcopalian Church and Dr. Russel Moore, chief ethicist of the SBC. I have a lot of respect for both of these men, as different as they are, so to hear them together on this episode encouraged me greatly.

Here’s a piece from Plough on charitable writing—a value that is necessary in the work of healing. There is good work done in here on the work of listening, understanding, and right representation.

Finally, here’s a really heartbreaking piece from a liberal writing about the suicide of his Republican friend after being canceled by the university for which he worked. This is a lament on what happens when we refuse to see the complexity of a whole person.

This is unrelated, but it was some sweet news for me this week. Handle With Care won an Award of Merit (second place) in its category for Christianity Today 2021 Book Awards. It came in second to one of my favorite books released this year, Mother to Son from Jasmine Holmes. If you haven’t read her book, please buy it today. It’s a powerful, humble, and beautiful book. And thank you CT, for recognizing Handle With Care! It was a total surprise and I’m really honored.