Eternal Perspective: Real Peace

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Sometimes I just want to put my fingers in my ears like a six year old and shut out the noise. There’s noise at the southern border, noise in Washington, noise in the cities, noise on social media, noise on the air, even noise at home sometimes. It’s a hot mess.

We’re all grownups here, though, and we’ve figured out that physically shutting out the noise isn’t enough. Of course, I can turn off the media, hide the phone under a pillow, shut the door. But somehow the noise follows, jangling in my head like an offensive song, until there’s no room for anything but anxiety.

There are two choices here, I think. Move to a deserted island, or deal with the noise somehow. And since the real estate market is plum out of islands for sale, it’ll have to be the latter: deal with it. I guess that’s reality. So how do you deal with noisy reality day in and day out without giving in to depression, fear, frustration, anger, and worry? Chocolate might not be the answer.

The secular world has lots of suggestions for dealing with hard reality: meditation, counseling, drugs, self-denial, self-indulgence, self-help, comfort animals, you name it. Somehow, these coping mechanisms fail to give us what we really need – peace.

Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 describes the deep and enduring peace God promises to those who follow Jesus:

6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

As Christians, we know where we’re going. Our eternal destination is Home with the Lord after we die. Meantime, it may be tough, but we make the journey Home with Jesus beside us, promising transcendent peace when we give up that nagging worry and “present our requests to God”, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.”

As for coping mechanisms, Christians have a couple more – mentioned earlier, in Philippians 4, verses 4 and 5:

4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

How do we cope with reality? We rejoice! Why? Because Jesus has conquered sin and death so we can live fully and be with the Lord when we die. We rejoice, and we pray about everything, good and bad. We also give thanks, because "counting our blessings" is always salutary. We’re also supposed to “let our gentleness be evident to all.” There is real strength in Christ-like gentleness. And finally, after all that, we are at peace, because the Lord hears us, He is near, He loves us, and He promises us an eternal Home in Heaven: where there are no tears. So we can have an eternal perspective, never shattered by the noise of the world.

After all, when you look forward to eternity, you begin to see that what we’re going through now is just a moment in time, compared to forever.

So we can step out boldly into the noisy world, offering to share the promise of peace that passes understanding. We can hear the noise, and not be fooled by it – we can stand for justice, speak the truth, and love one another, without anxiety. We can take our fingers out of our ears and face the real reality that is Eternity with Jesus, starting now.

Standing with you,

Carolyn

What do you think? What's making noise in your life? Are you finding peace in the turmoil? I would love to know your comments below!