peace - second sunday of advent

some of my friends and i are celebrating advent on thursday nights... call us "progressive"...

the concept of peace i believe is misconstrued... peace is usually associated with everything being calm and perfect. i find it that the moments i experience true peace are the moments where i don't know the difference from up and down.

traditionally, peace in advent is associated with the story of the annunciation to mary. talk about messed up worlds! a 14 year old finds out that she will have a baby in a society where doing so out of wedlock was deserving of stoning and shunning. yet somehow she seems to have that peace that surpasses all understanding.

maybe peace isn't the "miss congeniality" concept of "world peace"... maybe peace is keeping life in perspective, keeping the bigger picture in mind. what is a year when compared to a lifetime? this is not to minimize experiences or circumstance, yet in the midst of the upside down experience relying in the holy spirit to be the one that sustains, that empowers, that loves through me. that maybe instead of grasping i need to let go...

i've experienced it. i've lived it. and i wish i could say this is an ongoing experience...

i'm learning and getting better at it, but by no means an expert.

a genius from the 12th century said it best...

lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is dispair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.