Perfect Peace
Perfect Peace in the In-Between
It’s December 26th! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas yesterday!
Some of you, like us, are probably still in Christmas mode with more family and more friends to see and more presents still to open!
December 26 for a lot of us is that in between time. Christmas is over but it’s not over. The presents have been opened but there are still more to open.
The truth is, we’re always living in these kinds of in-between times. Between what has happened but hasn’t fully happened yet. Between what’s come and what is still coming.
As followers of Jesus, this is where we live every day, between the time Jesus came when He was born in a manger and the time He will come again to take us home.
And we know that living life in the middle is not always easy. And finding PEACE in the in between times, it can be incredibly difficult.
SO… How do we live in peace in the in between?
Missing Peace
One of our Christmas traditions we have as a family is taking time during the holidays to put together a Christmas puzzle. I would say it’s a family tradition but the truth is I don’t like to do puzzles.
My wife loves it. Our kids enjoy it. But I’m just not a puzzle person. I don’t know why. I don’t see the allure of staring at tiny pieces someone cut up on purpose and trying to fit them all together again to see a picture that I can already see on the front of the box.
But that’s just me.
So I’ll confess that this is one of those Christmas traditions in our family that I support but I don’t really participate in. I probably should.
But over the Christmas break our family put together one of these puzzles. They worked on it for several days. And then… probably the worst thing that can happen to people who love putting puzzles together happened to Alisha… she got the whole thing together only to realize there was 1 piece missing!
How many of you have experienced this special kind of pain?
Well, the search began at our house. Did it fall off the table? Did our dog eat it? Did our robot vacuum pick it up? Where in the world is that one piece that is missing? No one could find it!
Here’s how you know you’re a preacher. As I’m watching all this unfold here’s what I’m thinking…
“There is no PEACE when you’re missing a PIECE!”
Missing PEACE
I wonder if the reason so many of us cannot find this illusive thing we call peace is because something is missing.
I wonder if this is true for you?
This is what happens when we’re living life in the middle. When we’re living life in the in between. Between the way things were and the way things will one day be.
Living life in the middle means living without all the pieces in place. And it’s hard to have peace when you don’t have all the pieces.
When we’re kids, this can be fun. When we’re living between the last time Santa came and the next time Santa will come! We’re not at peace but the missing pieces, not knowing what Santa will bring, this brings an element of anticipation and excitement.
But as we get older we realize that living without all the pieces brings anxiety, fear, and a special kind of pain.
We know what it’s like to live life between when Covid started and when/if Covid will ever end.
We know what it’s like to live between the last election cycle and the coming election cycle.
We know what it’s like to live between the initial diagnosis and waiting to see if the treatment plan will work.
We don’t have all the information. We don’t know how things are going to turn out. There’s too many missing pieces to know what the puzzle looks like and what’s worse, we don’t have the box to look at!
So how do we find peace? How do we live in peace? Especially when we’re living in these in between times?
Searching for Perfect Peace
Searching for PEACE in the in-between is something people have been searching for since the beginning of time. I say that just so you know you’re not alone. Everyone either knows, has known, or is currently searching for peace in the in between.
If that’s you, I want to share one verse with you that I hope will encourage you, help you, and bless your life as we bring 2021 to an end and enter into 2022.
We started this series back at the beginning of December here in the book of Isaiah when we looked at Isaiah’s prophecy and promise that one day a Son would be born who would be called, “The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah wrote those words of prophecy and promise to the people of God who were living in a very dark time. They were living under the complete oppression of foreign kings. There was no hope in sight, no end in sight, to their captivity, to their present darkness.
The bottom line: Their enemy is seemingly unconquerable.
I wonder how many of you can identify with that? With the idea that whatever you’re up against in your marriage, with your kids, your parents, your work, your health… it is seemingly unconquerable.
This is how the entire nation of Israel felt at this point in history. Yet, even in the middle of this darkness, and it was very dark, there was reason for despair, there was a glimmer of hope.
If you fast forward from Isaiah 9 where Isaiah predicts the coming of the Prince of Peace to Isaiah 26, you’ll find another prophecy and promise. In Isaiah 26.3, Isaiah says this…
“You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
This sounds like the kind of verse you would put on a post card, or post on social media, or put on your mirror so you can memorize it. And, by the way, those are all good things. But what I don’t want you to do if you do any of that is lift it from it’s context. When you remove this verse from it’s context it looses it’s power.
The Promise of Perfect Peace
During the time of Isaiah Israel faces complete domination from enemy Empires like the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The little of nation of Israel has no chance against such powerful adversaries. And because they are living in disobedience to God, they have no hope to win a war much less live in peace as a sovereign nation.
Every victory they ever won, especially against overwhelming odds, they only won because God was on their side. But now, because they have turned away from God, they have no hope.
But even in this moment, even in this darkness, God has given them a promise. It’s a promise of peace. And not just any peace, perfect peace.
What interesting about Isaiah 26.3 is that in the original language, it doesn’t say perfect. There are Hebrew words used throughout the Old Testament that translate into our word perfect but none of those words are used here.
If you look at these words in Isaiah in the original language what you find is that Isaiah says,
“You will keep in SHALOM SHALOM
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
Shalom, as many of you may know by now, is the Hebrew word for peace. And it doesn’t just mean a cease fire, a truce, an absence of conflict. The Biblical idea of peace means setting things right, it’s the way things are supposed to be, it’s well being and wholeness and wellness.
And so Isaiah says that God will keep in SHALOM SHALOM those who TRUST in God and those who keep their thoughts FIXED on God.
Shalom Shalom. Not just peace, PERFECT PEACE.
But…
How do you live in peace in the in between?
SomeONE is Missing
How do you find this perfect peace, how do you find shalom shalom, in a world where things are not the way they are supposed to be? When you’re living in the middle, in the in between times of life, when there is so much uncertainty and real peace is nowhere to be found?
I wonder if the reason so many of us cannot find this illusive thing we call peace is because something is missing.
PEACE in Marriage
We can’t find peace in our marriage. We’re living between the time when we said I do and until death do us part and right here in the middle things aren’t the way we thought they would be when we first met.
And the reason isn’t because we need more money, or we need a bigger house, or we need a better car, or we need a vacation, or we need this or we need that… we need something that’s missing but we can’t find the missing piece so we have no peace and what’s worse, we don’t know what the piece looks like that we need to find so we can have peace.
Peace in Work
We can’t find peace in our work. When we started this job we were filled with hope, with promise, with an idea of what the future would be like, what it would like and now here we are and there is serious tension in the workplace. The opportunities once promised aren’t being realized.
And the reason isn’t because we’re under appreciated, under paid, under valued. It’s not because we’re over worked, burned out, or that we’ve done all we can do. There’s something that’s missing and until we identify what it is, find it, and put it in place, we’ll be incomplete. We’ll be in a constant state of unrest, angst, and frustration.
Peace in Your Soul
We can’t find peace in our own soul. If we were to sit still long enough, which we won’t do by the way because it’s terrifying, we would feel just how troubled our soul is within us. We’re living between a moment in time when we were truly happy, content, and things were well with our souls and a time when one day, we believe we will find rest for our souls when Jesus returns. But right now, right here in this present moment, there is no peace within us.
And the reason isn’t because we don’t have access to what we need, our basic needs really are taken care of if we’re honest. We feel tired all the time, but it’s not because we can’t sleep. Our soul is longing for something but we can’t identify what it is, we don’t know what (or who) the missing peace is so we end up looking for peace in all the wrong places, in all the wrong relationships, at the bottom of all the wrong bottles, on the other side of all the wrong screens and while that sometimes leads to a temporary feeling of relief it does not lead to long lasting peace.
I wonder if the reason so many of us cannot find this illusive thing we call peace is NOT because something is missing, but because SOMEONE is missing.
FIXED on YOU
Remember what Isaiah said,
“You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
So how do we find peace? How do we live in peace? Especially when we’re living in these in between times?
The only way to live in Perfect Peace, in Shalom Shalom, is to keep your mind FIXED on Jesus.
There’s an old hymn that had that refrain, I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus.
I love that idea. I don’t know what the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning is… maybe it’s how do I get this alarm turned off. Or, do I really have to get up?
Some of us, the first thing we reach for is our phone so the first thing we think about are all the notifications vying for our attention.
What if, this New Year, this was your only new year’s resolution. To wake up each morning with your mind stayed on Jesus.
Move your phone and put this verse on your nightstand instead from Isaiah 26.3. Set your alarm to wake you up with one of your favorite worship songs. Before you check your phone for any notifications, read the verse for the day from the YouVersion Bible App. Begin each morning, before you get out of bed with The Lord’s Prayer.
Do whatever it is that works best for you, but start each day by finding a way to fix your thoughts on Jesus.
Found it!
By the way, that missing puzzle piece Alisha was looking for to the Christmas puzzle she was trying to put together, we finally found it.
As it turns out our sweet little Emma wanted to be the one to put the last piece of the puzzle into place so she could be the one to finish the puzzle. So when no one was looking she took one puzzle piece and hid it in her room.
I think she learned that trick from her Papaw!
The missing piece your’e looking for to find the PEACE you’re longing for… it’s Jesus. And, by the way, he’s not hiding from you. On the contrary, he’s actually looking for you. Because He know’s He’s the missing PIECE you’re looking for to find the PEACE you’re longing for.
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