We had lunch together at the Wild Ginger, one of my favorite restaurants. We cried together over the meal. She is one of my favorite people on the planet. I love her and would do just about anything for her--she is that cool! Extremely gifted, talented, professional, refreshingly earthy, loves God and wants to keep it that way but having trouble hanging on. A painful and toxic situation has left her deeply scared and wounded. I could relate! "I just want to be at peace," she said. I could relate again. Everyone can relate. It is the response of every beauty queen when asked what they desire most for the planet! We all want it. Ironically we cannot "get it" or consume it. We receive it, by grace. Usually, when we are at our wits end. After we have given up-which is possibly the point!
I doubt I helped. It stirred many emotions in myself. I thought about peace. I tend to think of it in terms of the absence of war, strife, poverty, pain. I remember reading someplace along the line that there has never been a time in human history where humans have not lifted a rock, club, spear, sword, arrow, AK-47, or a heat seeking missle against one another. Could this be? Yup. So what is peace? Why do we crave it and yet find it so elusive and antithetical to the human experience? To the Hebrew shalom was not the absence of something it was the fullness of something.....If it is not the absence of conflict then what is it?
Jesus said, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Later on he said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you?" What does this paradox mean? Afterall, he is the Prince of Peace!
Back to the Hebrew. Peace was being full of something that made one whole, in the midst of all of the chaos, conflict and emotional pain. A favorite rock band of mine, Radiohead, says it means that everything is in its right place. But agian--what is it? Is it possible that inner peace and peace is not the absence of something but the fullness of something and ultimately Someone? I propose that inner peace is the presence of love and the one who is the Great Lover--even in the dark tunnel of chaos.
May you unexpedly experience whole, overflowing, extravagent, robust, and ferocious love by the Great Lover as your body is warmed this Spring season. Every time the sun heats you this Spring and you get that wonderful tingling sensation that takes you from a slight chill to a bone warming sensation, remember the warmth of a serendipitous love from the Great Lover who authors peace when you feel overcome by the temporality of chaos.
We cleared our eyes, smiled and hugged one another when we finished our lunch. If I was right next to you as you read this--I would hug you too!
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