Peace
The Pause
Before you begin,
let your shoulders fall.
Feel the quiet space
between your breaths.
Peace does not begin in the world.
It begins here —
in the place God speaks without sound.
There is a kind of peace we try to build —
the peace of good outcomes,
solved problems,
quiet rooms,
and predictable days.
But that peace is fragile.
It cracks when life trembles.
It shatters when sorrow enters.
It fades when the wind rises.
And yet Scripture dares to speak of another peace —
not the peace we make,
but the peace that makes us.
The angels announced it the night Christ was born:
“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”
Not a command.
A declaration.
Peace had come —
not as a feeling,
but as a Person.
Solomon saw a world where everything slipped through our fingers,
where toil turned to vapor,
where wisdom ended in sighs.
He longed for meaning stable enough to stand on.
Christ came as the ground beneath our feet.
He did not promise calm circumstances.
He promised His peace —
a peace untouched by storms
because it does not rise from us
but rests upon us.
“My peace I give you… not as the world gives.”
It is peace that breathes us,
peace that holds when we cannot hold ourselves.
This peace does not silence the winds;
it fills them.
It does not prevent the fall;
it meets us at the bottom.
It does not erase sorrow;
it walks us into the House of Mourning
and weeps with us there.
Peace is not the absence of trouble.
Peace is the presence of God
in the very places that trouble us.
And so Advent whispers:
You don’t have to climb to find peace.
You don’t have to strive to earn it.
You don’t have to perfect your life
before you receive it.
Peace comes down.
Peace is born in straw.
Peace sleeps inside the broken places
we tried so hard to fix.
Peace is not what you achieve.
Peace is who has come for you.
Let every trembling part of you
hear the quiet truth of this week:
Christ is your peace.
Not someday.
Now.
In this breath,
in this room,
in this life that feels both beautiful and undone.
Peace is not something you must hold.
Peace is Someone who holds you.
Under the Sun / Beyond the Sun
You searched for calm
and found none.
You searched for answers
and found silence.
But into the silence
Peace was born —
not far from you,
but in you,
the heartbeat of God
beneath your every breath.