Where is peace?

This is an old story, and perhaps you have heard this one about a certain beauty queen? She was a beauty queen in Virginia several years ago. 

Shortly after crowning her successor, she drove 250 miles to seek revenge on her ex-boyfriend for jilting her and marrying another.

She took along a pistol, a hammer, lighter fluid & matches. When she arrived at his house and rang the doorbell, it was answered by his new father-in-law.

She faked having car trouble, and asked if she could use the telephone. Once inside the house, she took out her hammer and hit the father-in-law on the head. She stunned him, but didn’t knock him out. What she didn’t realize was that he was an ex-secret service agent. He grabbed her and as they struggled, she pulled the pistol from her purse and tried to shoot him.

That’s when the mother-in-law joined the fray and the two of them wrestled her to the floor, holding her until the police arrived.

I would guess that Tracy, with that kind of disposition, was probably never in the running for the Miss Congeniality award.

When questioned, she said that she was driven to seek revenge because she needed "inner peace."

So, our subject for the next few days is, "Where is Peace?"

Our primary text is Philippians 4:1-9, where we find the phrase, "the peace...which transcends all understanding."

In these verses, Paul deals with the subjects of peace with one another, peace within, and peace with God.

For most of us, if someone asked us, “WHAT IS PEACE?”, we'd have trouble coming up with a concrete answer. Peace is one of those things that everyone wants, but no one has a real clear answer of what it is or how to get it and how to keep it.  

Let's start on some common ground. I like to look in the dictionary whenever I have a word that I need to try to understand better. 

Webster’s has this to say about peace- it is :

•  the “freedom from or stopping of war; 
•  freedom from public disturbance or disorder;
•  freedom from disagreement or calm, quiet, tranquility.”

All of these explanations of peace talk about peace as if it is something that happens when conflict and problems are not present.

I have to get rid of all those things that create anxiety in my in my life in order for me to have peace.

I have to get rid of my husband or my kids, or my boss or my neighbors or my bills.

If this is indeed the cast, then we will never have peace, because as long as we are alive, we will always have conflict, and we will always have problems.

This is not so...

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