Peace and How to Attain It

In Philippians 4.6,7, this morning. One do not, and one do. DO NOT be anxious about anything. DO let your requests be made known to God (with thanksgiving of course!). Paul gives a command here so we ought to take it as a command, not as an opinion. When our hearts are anxious (and they will be) take it to the Lord. It's funny that Paul doesn't promise any positive outcome here, at least from our own human framework and desires. He only promises the peace of God. That is enough.

John Calvin weighs in: For we are not made of iron, nor of steel so as not to be shaken by temptations. But this is our consolation, this is our solace —to deposit, or (to speak with greater propriety) to disburden in the bosom of God everything that harasses us.

The Liberty (and Responsibility) of the Believer

When it comes to the liberty of the believer, we are called to desire the twin qualities of peace and mutual upbuilding (Rom 14.19). I suppose that this works itself out by asking myself the question, "in regards to x, will my pursuit of it bring about peace and edify other believers?" Obviously each person's working out of the answer to that question will be different. Our problem is that we tend to do what we want and then justify it, rather than desire peace and edification and act accordingly. May we stand out, as followers of Christ, for our peacemaking spirits.

Solzhenitsyn on Sacrifice

This is an excerpt from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize lecture. It is an astounding lecture.

The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. I even venture to say that the spirit of Munich prevails in the Twentieth Century. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people, it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people - and there are many in today's world - elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold of hardship today - and tomorrow, you'll see, it will all be all right. (But it will never be all right! The price of cowardice will only be evil; we shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.)

He was, unfortunately, absolutely correct. Prosperity breeds inevitably a lack of will because all we want is to be comfortable, to avoid trouble. There are some things more important than my own personal peace. Or as Kevin Costner's character put it in Open Range: "There's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying."