Ushered into Deep Peace, Part 3

Without Christ’s presence among us, the truth can be the last thing we want to know about ourselves… and it’s certainly the last thing we want to tell each other. It’s uncomfortable.  It’s hard to interact at that depth. 

Without Christ, we can only hide… avoid… and stop shopping at Trader Joe’s.

The path of least resistance is to avoid one another… but the way of the cross is to seek peace with one another.

Christ’s presence in us, by His Holy Spirit, ushers us into deep peace with one another. 

Back to the Mom and her son...

After running a few more errands, the mom decided that the lesson that really needed to be learned for her son was the lesson of reconciliation.  Whatever else had happened, she couldn’t allow her son to live in this lie of shame and avoidance… not to mention that she needed to be able to shop at Trader Joe’s.  She explained to her son that his consequence was to go back to the man at Trader Joe’s and explain to him that he recognized the wrong he had done and was truly sorry… and to seek his forgiveness, whether forgiveness was a word in his vocabulary or not.

She promised the boy that she would go with him… but that he needed to do the talking.  He held her hand, taking deep breaths, and walked into the freezer section, where the man was  unloading a box of frozen fruit.  He looked at the man and said – in between tears, “I feel really badly about what I did.  Will you please forgive me?”  And the man said, “I forgive you.”  (the mom could have hugged the man for not brushing it off!)  “We all make mistakes,” he said… now we just need to learn from it and keep moving forward.”  And the boy heaved a huge sigh of relief and squeezed his mom’s hand.  They didn’t have to avoid Trader Joe’s anymore… because the boy had drawn near to the man… and had sought to repair the awkwardness of the relationship.  He had learned… and it was time to keep moving forward.  He had been ushered into deeper peace.

Lack of violence is not true peace.  Christ, Himself, by His Holy Spirit, is present with us… He is our peace.

The Spirit of Christ ushers us into deep peace with one another. 

Will we respond?