"Imagine all the people living life in peace"
John Lennon's classic lyrics put words to a universal cry for a world where there is no more sorrow, no more anger, or conflict between people - peace on earth. It was a central tenet of the hippie movement of the seventies and many other movements back through the ages. It is a dream that many have sought to realize. The fact that it has continued to elude us as a race for thousands of years doesn't seem to diminish people's belief that it is entirely possible, if we could all just try a little harder.
The Christian position, though, is quite different. Not that they don't want peace. They most certainly do! But they have also accepted the reality that human beings are intrinsically flawed and therefore incapable of anything more than brief flashes of the kind of character, the kind of love and tolerance, that makes such peace possible. In the past, many have eagerly followed charismatic leaders who held forth the promise a bright new day. Only to watch it all trainwreck into a brutal reign of terror. Or the couple who swear undying devotion at the alter, only to square off a few years later in bitter divorce. Real peace seems much harder to come by than most people realize. Hard to come by and even harder to hold on to.
Christians take it as just one more indicator that none of us are much good without God. That we were designed, by God, to exist in intimate relationship with our Creator, and without that we are all incomplete at best and criminally dysfunctional at our worst. But the more we, as individuals, are able to let Christ, the Prince of Peace, run our lives, the more peace there is on earth.
The take-away? SImply this: if you haven't done so already, just admit that you have sinned and cannot stop sinning, ask God to forgive you and be merciful to you, then surrender the leadership of your life to Christ.
Peace.
