Mary (not her real name) definitely lives in Herod’s world. I met her the same day I published last week’s article, “Is there Peace in Herod’s World?”
She’s a single Mom with a 15-year-old son and has lived for 10 years in the same public housing project here in Annapolis.
Sitting on her couch in her tidy living room, Mary told me what life is like literally outside the front door of her ground floor apartment. Drug sales regularly go down in the parking lot, just feet from her door. There are always young men loitering about. It’s noisy at all hours. Many young girls she’s watched grow up over the last 10 years became mothers in high school. Violence is not unusual.
Mary said she used to enjoy sitting outside by her front door. Now she stays inside as much as she can.
Mary saw the growing negative impact the environment was having on her teenage son. She tried all sorts of programs and counseling to help him, but finally made the supreme sacrifice of sending him to live with his father, even though her son had lived only with her his entire life. She was that desperate to move him to a different environment
I met Mary through a church that offers various ministries in her complex. Because the buildings are rundown, the local housing authority decided to tear them down and rebuild. Thus, all current residents must move.
I am assigned as Mary’s “advocate” to help her through the process of finding a new home. Information from the housing authority can be confusing. She’s doesn’t have a job and owes back rent; both severely limit her future housing prospects. As a single tenant since her son left, she will have fewer options than families. She fears she will end up in an even more dangerous project. Her life is filled with uncertainty.
In spite of these daunting problems, Mary verbalized (and gave me the impression) that she trusts God for her future. She obviously believes in Jesus. In spite of the circumstances swirling around her which, she admitted, are very frustrating at times, she is at peace.
The World’s Peace
Search the internet for “finding peace” and you’ll find quotes like these:
- “You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.”
- “We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.”
- “As long as you hang onto your integrity, no matter how tough things get, you can still have that wonderful sense of peace within you.”
- “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
Nothing can bring me peace but myself? It’s up to me to find peace?
I’m done with easy formulas that tell me if I just think or feel or act in certain ways, I will generate my own peace.
Such self-manufactured peace skims the surface of life, rarely daring to ask hard questions about the darkness hovering all around us.
The chaos of the world penetrates every heart. Our hopes disintegrate, our dreams dissolve. Broken relationships with friends or loved ones haunt us, our physical well-being slowly (or suddenly!) forsakes us.
It’s true for all of us: chaos comes calling when we least expect it.
And we are the fortunate ones. For the vast majority of people on our planet (like Mary), chaos and loss are not occasional intruders into a comfortable life, but always-present everyday realities.
The Prince of Peace
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. –Isaiah 9:6
What was God thinking!?
Why allow his Prince to be born so vulnerably? In a stable, not a palace! Peasants for parents, not the wise or educated! Animals as attendants, not an honor guard!
He will be a Prince far different than the world has ever seen. A Prince who rules from below, not from above. A Prince to whom weakness becomes strength. A Prince who gives away worldly power—even life itself—as his surest path to final victory.
The peace this Prince promises can never be constructed from the raw materials this world offers. It comes in an entirely different way.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. –Colossians 1:19-20
All the fulness of God was pleased to dwell in a human baby. The King walked among us incognito. He ultimately died a brutal death on the cross, where peace between God and humankind was secured once and for all.
This peace with God sets off a cosmic chain reaction—he reconciles all things to himself.
A right relationship with our Creator leads to deep reconciliation within ourselves—we are set free from guilt and shame, our past no longer controls our future.
Experiencing forgiveness deep within ourselves leads to reconciliation with others—we can forgive and ask for forgiveness from others.
This reconciliation in turn opens the door to true biblical shalom.
As we admit our own brokenness, we care more about the brokenness of others. We are able to put others before ourselves, to seek the welfare of the whole community, to insure that all receive justice and a share of the earth’s bounty.
Only the Creator can heal the deep sickness of his creation. Only God can right every wrong, reconcile every hateful thought, renew every broken spirit, heal every division.
Only God can create deep and lasting shalom. God’s son Jesus offers this peace as a gift to all who receive it.
“Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
I had struggled with last week’s story despite reading it several times. Not only did it turn upside down the cultural traditions of the Christmas season, but it also insisted that real peace is only God’s peace! Did I have to wait until I died to find this peace? I kept telling myself I was missing something. And then this morning as I was reading about Mary and the importance of healing brokenness, I realized the rest of the story I had missed. Your advocacy on behalf of Mary is an example of finding God’s peace through interactions with God’s people and through acknowledging the importance of reconciliation. What an important message not only during Advent but also throughout the year.