“The Peace of Wild Things”
By Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Where do you experience peace?

By the water,
In the woods,
Beside a cozy fire,
In the secure company of friends,
At the end of the day,
At the beginning of the day,
Breathing deeply, acknowledging God’s secure enfolding presence,
In your body,
In your mind,
Nestled in the embrace of one you love,
Resting in the loving gaze of God delighting in you?

Jesus reassures us our peace does not depend on the absence of chaos or hardship, uncertainty or challenge.

He tells his disciples, “PEACE I leave with you; MY PEACE I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED, and DO NOT LET THEM BE AFRAID.” ~John 14:27 (NIV)

And again, “I have said this to you, so that in Me you may have PEACE.  In the world you face persecution.  But take courage; I have conquered the world!” ~John 16:33 (NRSVA)

Peace is the gift of a heart, mind, soul, and body at rest. 

O Eternal One, my heart is not occupied with proud thoughts;
my eyes do not look down on others;
I don’t even begin to get involved in matters too big, matters of faith, state, business,
or the many things that defy my ability to understand them.
Of one thing I am certain: my soul has become calm, quiet, and contented in You.
Like a weaned child resting upon his mother, I am quiet.
My soul is like this weaned child.

~Psalm 131:1-2 (The Voice)

Peace is the fruit born of abiding in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. ~Galatians 5:22-23 (The Voice)

Peace is the manifestation of God’s kingdom among us.

When God reigns, the order of the day is redeeming justice [which is the essence of love], true peace, and joy made possible by the Holy Spirit. ~Romans 14:17b (The Voice)

“Peace is the rest of will that results from assurance about ‘how things will turn out.’  It is the fruit of “active engagement with what is good,” coupled with the “assurance that things will turn out well.” ~Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart, p. 134).

I watched my wife journey in peace as her body declined, knowing that the ultimate outcome of her journey was not death, but life, and that Psalm 23 was her daily reality.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
³     he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.

Peace is the fruit of an experientially secure attachment to God who is love.

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
in peace because they trust in you. ~Isaiah 26:3 (NRSV)

As Paul Zach so comfortingly reminds us, “You, God, are ‘Always With Me'”:

 

Peace is the gift of being present to the love of God in this moment, free of “chasing my worries and fleeing my sorrows” (as The Porter’s Gate remind us in this song):

 

And so God encourages us to…
  …Seek (I Peter 3:11) and pursue peace (Hebrews 12:14):

• peace with God, peace with myself, and peace with my neighbors
• peace in the presence of opposition
• peace that carries us through death to the new creation
• the peace of releasing outcomes in abandonment to His loving care for me
• the peace that comes from welcoming my feelings in the security of His strong embrace and loving gaze, knowing that I can safely process them with Him, thereby returning from places of desolation to places of joy rooted and grounded in love
• the peace that dispels fear in all its manifestations: fear of change, fear of those who are different than me, fear of others’ disapproval, fear of loss of that which is precious to me
• the peace that dispels the presumption that my desires are more important than others
• the peace that dispels the fear that well-being is a zero-sum game and that my well-being is threatened by the well-being of others
  

Come Holy Spirit! Secure our souls so that we can rest in the reality of Your loving embrace. Transform us into vessels of peace, infusing the environments we inhabit with Your peace.

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Resources for further reflection and peace-filled engagement with God:

“Sabbaths 1979, I” by Wendell Berry

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it.  As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

“Comfort Song” by Laura Woodley Osman

 

Quieting Guided Prayer Exercise
led by Curt Thompson