Searching For Peace In All The Wrong Places

Jesus taught, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27 ESV).

You might not know Abraham Maslow, but his thinking has really hijacked the way that we pursue peace. In an article in 1943, he argued that we can't be self-actualized people until we have a good self-esteem. And we can't have a good self-esteem until we have love and belonging. And we can't experience love and belonging until we have our need for safety met. And we can't have our safety met until we have our bare minimum physiological needs met. One need met builds on the top of others until we have arrived at our goal in life. Generally, I would agree with this idea, but Jesus is the trump card. Instead of helping us traverse through Maslow's hierarchy of needs to finding the great life, Jesus just catapults us over the needs right into the midst of a great life.

Peace isn't found on the other end of our needs being met. It's about us being in the will of God. It's about having Jesus. The word translated peace can be understood as wholeness or completeness. Peace is found when one is made whole.

Think of it as our bodies. When you hurt a finger or a thumb, you realize how much it hurts to not be whole. If you lose a leg or an arm, you can still make do, but not being whole makes things much more difficult. Peace is wholeness. It's when we are completed. It's not when everything is perfect. It's not when all our needs are met. It's when we are whole.

In Liberia, I met this lady named Hawa. They call her Mother Hawa. During the Liberian Civil Wars, she found herself in a refugee camp in Nigeria for fourteen years. She didn't have her needs met. Her family was gone. She was alone. She was hungry. Safety wasn't even close to guaranteed. Yet she stepped out in faith and started an orphanage there in the middle of that refugee camp. She would meet needs. She would bring safety. She would love. She took in nearly one hundred kids and spent her life taking care of them.

One night during my recent trip to Liberia, I sat down with Mother Hawa outside the school in Johnsonville and we chatted for around an hour. Here I was, the rich American. Blessed beyond her greatest imaginings. Each of you, blessed beyond her greatest imaginings. And I was sitting by this sweet, precious fifty-year old lady who has spent most of her life taking care of orphans in a nation that produces a lot of orphans. She may not be as physically rich as us, but spiritually, she is a giant, who has every right to look down on me and all I have in a world where some have so little. Yet she doesn't. She is filled with love.

I heard her life's story. And what a life. She is freed from the refugee camp, but she still pursues her calling. She runs an orphanage now in Liberia. In the midst of despair and hopelessness, she found peace. Not through having some hierarchy of needs met. She found peace in the midst of not having her needs met. Instead of working her way up to the top of the hierarchy of needs, Jesus carried her straight to the top. He says that you may not have your needs met. You may go a day or days without food, but I am going to use you to give food to others. You may not feel safe at night, but I'm going to use you to bring safety to others. You may not have a family, but I'm going to use you to be the family to others. And in that, she finds peace. What a beautiful, sacred peace. I was blessed to be in the presence of it.


Jesus claims to give us peace. But have you ever notice that at times you feel like something is missing? That you are called to something that you currently aren't experiencing? That you haven't found peace even as a follower of Jesus? That's when you should look at Jesus' hierarchy of needs.

We want to be blessed, but we shouldn't pursue blessings. We should pursue being a blessing. We want to find peace, but we shouldn't pursue peace. We should live a life forgiving and loving others. We want to be loved, but we shouldn't pursue being loved. We should pursue loving others.

We must pursue Jesus. Pursue His will. Pursue His plan for our life. He will lead us to love, which will lead us to peace, which will lead us to blessings. That hole we have can only be filled by passionately pursuing loving Jesus and loving others more. Lasting Peace is not found outside of Jesus; it is found in Him. In Him we can be whole.

Jesus, Forgiveness, and Suicide

The other day, while counseling students at the school after the tragic and unfortunate suicide of Dalton Skeens, I was asked whether a person could go to heaven who committed suicide.  This is a much more exhaustive answer to that question.

The Bible does not address the subject of suicide directly.  

First, I will start by debunking a false idea that floats around.  Sometimes suicide gets labeled as the unforgivable sin (Mark 3:22-30, Matthew 12:22-32).  "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" [Mark 3:29 (ESV)].  The context shines light on what this means.  After Jesus healed a demon-possessed man, the Scribes and the Pharisees who were out to get him claimed that Jesus was in league with Satan.  Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to claim that an act that you know is from God is from Satan.  The unforgivable sin has nothing to do with suicide.  

  

I like what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches on suicide.

Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance (2280-2283a).

In the end, the only thing that prevents people from going to heaven is not knowing Jesus.  It seems kind of strange, but it's like going to an invitation-only party without the invitation.  Hopefully, the guy that invited us will be at the door, but we don't know that he will be.  We have all been invited, but we need to bring the invitation.  

But it's more significant than that.  Jesus claimed to be "the way, and the truth, and the life."  He followed that up by saying, "No one comes to the Father except through me" [John 14:6-7 (ESV)].  It is through him that we receive forgiveness of our sins.  At the very core of the message of Jesus is that we are all sinners.  This sin separates us from the presence of God because God is holy and only allows the purified into his presence.  God became flesh in the form of Jesus to show us how to live and offer the perfect sacrifice for our sins that when accepted, covers our filthiness in holiness.  We accept that forgiveness through giving our life over to him.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  He is worth living for.

Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep [John 10:7-11 (ESV)]. 

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came so that we might live an abundant life.  Committing suicide is an act of theft, murder, and destruction.  However, that does not mean that committing suicide is unforgivable.  It just puts us face-to-face with a grace that is bigger than we can comprehend.  The grace of God expressed through Jesus is bigger than the greatest sins that we can think of.  

We just need to realize that no setback is to big too overcome.  We need to follow Jesus and live in the hope and the knowledge that life goes on no matter what the circumstances.  Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" [Romans 8:1 (ESV)].  What kind of grace would grace be if we were condemned to hell when we died while committing a sin?  The grace we receive from God covers all past, present, and future sins.  One might feel that this gives us a license to sin, but exactly the opposite happens when you experience this grace.  It isn't a license to sin; it's a freedom to live. 

God's grace is big enough for suicide, but God's plan for your life is so much greater than the permanent setbacks that emotionally engulf you.  There is always another change that can be made and another road to go down.  Don't give up.  We serve a God of hope. 

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,even as we hope in you.

                       Psalms 33:22 (ESV)