Protect the Peace

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 (NRSVUE) 

Sometimes I think we Christians worship anxiety. We are keenly aware of every injustice, and our own complicity, and mistake our worry for virtue. We think we can think our way to preventing the collapse of all we hold dear. 

It is good and right to examine ourselves and the world, and learn how to do better when we know better.  

But anxiety can curdle into judgment of self and others. Judgment can curdle into hatred, deep alienation, and a gray sort of inability to experience the most basic joy in living. 

We pray for peace, but would we know it if it set a little blanket around our shoulders and encouraged us to curl up and take a nap? We think that getting all our most noble prayers answered, the way we think God should answer them, will bring us peace.  

But Paul describes God’s peace as one that “passes all understanding.” It’s not a sensible peace, a denouement after the crisis, the Hollywood ending when the good guys win.  

It’s a peace that doesn’t make any sense. One that can steal upon our souls even in the midst of the madness, because we’ve earnestly prayed (not worried, not thought, but prayed), and given thanks for what we can, and then truly surrendered the rest—just as Jesus will do during Holy Week when the final confrontation comes.  

Don’t miss that peace that passes all understanding when it arrives. Accept it, receive it, don’t worry about when and if it will take flight again. You have it for now. And it will do you—and others around you—more good than you know.  

Prayer
God, maybe we’re the drama sometimes—or at least amplifying it. Teach me to pray earnestly, thank you fulsomely, let go of the rest—and then perceive your mysterious peace.

About the Author
Molly Baskette is a UCC minister, psychedelic facilitator and author of books about church renewal, parenting, post-traumatic joy and more. Learn more at mollybaskette.com.