Title: Peace in the Heart
Christmas (3) Peace in the heart (Luke 2:12-14)
< True Peace >
The old couple thought it was paradise on earth. However, after a while things turned out to be quite different. The Argentine military, which came to power in a coup in 1976, planned nationalist events, such as the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, in an attempt to combat continuing economic downturn and political unrest. So, on March 19, 1982, the British invaded the Falklands on April 1 of that year, taking advantage of the dispute over the unauthorized landing of Argentine civilians.
At that time, the Argentine military made a mistake. At that time, Britain was also struggling with economic difficulties, so it was thought that Britain would not be able to intervene militarily in a territorial dispute involving a small island in the distant Atlantic Ocean. However, they overlooked the fact that the then British Prime Minister was the ‘Iron Lady Thatcher’. The Thatcher administration immediately declared a head-on response, and the largest naval battle since World War II took place on the small island.
In the end, 74 days after the war, the war ended with a British victory, but during that time, the greatest paradise on earth turned into the greatest hell on earth. The old couple moved there to live in peace for the rest of their lives, but they could not find peace and only experienced the horrors of hell. There is no real peace anywhere in the world. True peace is in Jesus.
"Peace in the depths of my heart"
The Lord came to bring peace to this earth (verse 14). That peace was not by force. The Lord was born to poor parents in an isolated area and had no financial means. And they didn't even wage wars to fulfill their ambitions. Neither did he run with great political power, and he did not leave well-organized and powerful followers. Still, where the Lord was, there was mysteriously peace.
Everyone wants peace, but there is no absolute peace in this world. No environment can give you perfect peace. There is nothing to be envious of the plight of others. Everyone has his or her own pain that at some point leads to death. What is important is how to live in peace in the midst of such suffering.
The most important thing to achieve peace is 'humility spirituality'. If you trust yourself too much, you will not find peace. In fact, there is not much you can do and not much you can know. There is a saying, “the frog in the well”. A frog in a well can only see the sky above it. The frog thinks that the little blue circle is the whole universe. Humans are too small to see and understand like a frog in a well. Real peace comes when you realize that there is not much to understand and that you are not the center of the universe.
Occasionally, in meetings, there are people who are so assertive that they do not bend their assertions even on relative issues rather than absolute matters. The idea that only I am right causes arteriosclerosis of the soul. When you admit that you know very little and respect the opinions of others, your soul grows, peace comes to you, and eventually the boundaries of your life expand. Breaking one's thoughts gives the same pain as breaking an egg, but that pain is a good opportunity for growth.
One day, when the master died, the disciple asked. "Teacher! Is there a secret to making us happy and healing our wounds just by being with you?” Then the master told the parable of the mouth. “Just as the hard teeth and soft tongue in your mouth live harmoniously in a narrow space, you too can live peacefully and happily if you live gently without stabbing others.
If you want true peace and healing, do not lose your gentle and humble spirituality. Don't think that sometimes being a 'center of a well' with great success in a well is becoming 'the center of the universe'. A person's true worth does not exist when he succeeds, but when he is in God. Put your worth on the approval of God. If you give up trying to prove you are high, in that moment a mysterious peace will spring from the depths of your heart.