Peace Finds Us

Human perception embraces ideas about reality.  People see a water bottle and then construct a reality about the essence of what the water bottle should be. The problem, however, is that people’s perception is not always correct.

But it’s not necessarily our fault.  We collect our data, analyze it and perceive the best possible conclusions on life, faith, love and reality only to find we didn't have enough data.  There’s more to the story we didn't know.  And that’s where conflict arises – when we find out we don’t have enough data. 

That’s probably what Mary and Joseph thought when they went to Jerusalem on a donkey.  They went on faith they’d have a place to sleep.  They went on faith they’d be taken care of.  But there wasn’t a place to stay.  They weren’t taken care of.  They had to leave town.  They fought hard to get to Bethlehem and find an Inn Keeper still awake. But the only place they could find was a stinky barn.  You can only imagine their disappointment.  They’re upset because they didn’t have enough data.  If they would have known they could have made plans, called ahead, set something up with friends.  

Or how about the wise men when they set out to travel west to see the King of Kings?  They had to be upset to see this baby born king lying in a feeding trough – this is not how you treat your king.  They were upset because they didn’t have enough data. 

And we know Herod is spitting mad when he tries to kill this newborn but finds out he and his family slipped away to Egypt.  I mean he told the wise men to come back through Jerusalem and to let him know the scoop, but scripture says the wise men went home another way.  Herod becomes upset because he didn’t collect enough data. 

In all cases – Mary and Joseph, the wise men, and Herod were all looking for peace.  Mary and Joseph needed a comfortable place to give birth after a tough trimester.  The Wise Men needed to fill a void in their lives that had them searching for truth and meaning (so they set out on a pilgrimage to do just that).  Herod wanted to maintain his self-proclaimed ‘king of the Jews’ status so he conspires to murder Jesus.  All three want peace in their own way.  All three perceive their idea of peace to be the ultimate reality.  But this peace eludes them when they realize they don’t have enough data. 

And so the question remains – "What do we do when we realize we’ve misperceived reality?"

I fear we too often get angry, retreat inward, become self-destructive or forsake anything that used to be considered truth.  My sincere hope, though, is we (instead of getting angry) continually ask questions, search, hope against hope and research that which we think we know. 

Because peace doesn’t come in thinking we have it all figured out; eventually we’ll find out we don’t.  Peace comes when we admit we see through a glass darkly, yet choose to keep journeying.  For true peace is not found in the finding, it finds us amidst the searching.