Understanding the peace which passeth all understanding….

Let me get this straight (this is me, talking to me):

You don’t have to understand things to feel OK about life?

What? I don’t understand.

It’s kinda like this. Stay with me on this one.

Just yesterday, I was talking with a friend who had 56 different problems that she and I were trying to sort out. With some of the more interesting ones, we would analyze the variables that we felt might  make things work, and other variables that we were pretty sure were screwing things up.

As we went along, I found myself saying, “ I just don’t understand why he would do that.” Or another time, “They do that all the time, I don’t understand.” Or most dramatically, “He doesn’t hurt anybody by doing that but himself. I just don’t understand.”

My friend looked at me, and asked, “Hmmm. New idea. What if we will get to the bottom of this & make our action plan without understanding why they do what they do.”

Bamm! Big shift! Changed everything! And…we got our plan finished in less than a half hour. We don’t understand, but we were able to carry on, anyway.

Upon reflecting on that idea, I thought of all the major things I’ve done in my life without understanding how those things work, where those things are going, and and sometimes, where they even come from.

I have jumped into things with no idea how things were going to turn out.

Actually, I do a lot of things with out fully understanding everything about what I’m getting into.

The last 17 times I fell in love, I don’t remember stopping the process by saying, “I just don’t understand why she likes me.”

The last three jobs I moved into, I don’t remember stopping the process by saying, “I don’t know why I like this, so I won’t take the job.”

The last three people that I have met at the coffeehouse (where I meet most of the people in my life)… I don’t remember thinking, “I don’t understand them. I just won’t talk to them.”

It finally hit me what it means. This is it: At the end of the Anglican Communion service, the priest dismisses the congregation with a prayer of peace, which I’ve heard since  I was a small kid. The prayer goes something like this: “The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the love and service of our Lord Jesus Christ….”

Similarly, Paul’s letter to the Phillipians reports he says, “Be careful for nothing: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

I love that idea – that the peace of God is there, even if we don’t understand it.

In spite of the fact we don’t understand it. Built on the notion we don’t understand it. Accessible, maybe even more accessible, if we don’t understand it.

So just let it in.

And carry on. Understanding will come, when it’s time. We might have to wait for it. But we don’t have to wait for peace.

Share & heal, now.

Blessings to you,
Brother Ian