Finding Peace
November 05, 2013
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Ecclesiastes 3: 8
There is a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
The writer of such balanced wisdom offers to us, as do many over the years, an insight into the seasons of the life and the world, as it has played itself out over the millennia. Kingdoms and nations rise, and kingdoms and nations fall. The word of the Lord stands for ever. As the centuries have passed, it is almost self-evident that there are times for fighting and times to lay aside the weapons of war. Empires stretch and contract as energies and powers ebb and flow. The word of the Lord stands forever. There are those who would take away the freedoms and choices of liberation and love and faith and hope. War comes. And yet war gives way to peace, the struggle gives way to blessing, an inner and an outer journey. The word of the Lord stands forever.
Lord God, Plato suggested that ‘if you want peace, prepare for war!’ How do we find peace amongst the paraphernalia of destruction? You offer a future and a hope. You reach out to us in our darkest moments and offer to us the grace that can bring peace, peace at the heart of all we are, a peace that will transcend our deepest fears, a peace that holds onto us come what may. Lord, the struggle is necessary, the struggle to build a little bit of heaven everyday in our midst, the struggle to overcome the seeping darkness that would overwhelm our hearts should we let it. Lord God, help us find a peace that works even amidst the chaos of war, amidst the struggle for a better future, amidst the detritus and destruction of wasted bodies and distorted minds, a peace that only you can bring. Only you can bring us safe home, to ourselves, to our families, to a community of faith, of hope and of love. Lord, it seems that there is a time for peace and a time for war, help us to discern how best to serve your Kingdom in and through the struggle. Lord, grant us your peace. Amen.
Padre David Anderson
Chaplain to The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Padre David Anderson is currently serving in Kabul on Op Herrick 19. He has taken a series of well-known verses or passages from across scripture which expose and express our human nature in response to war and our hope for something better, God’s peace.
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