I think it is no accident that when Jesus is saying goodbye to his friends before his death, he offers them the gift of peace. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:7, NKJV). Peace, can feel so elusive, ephemeral, especially in times of radical change.
When I heard the news about the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Mississippi abortion case, I felt a tightening in my gut. I realized that it was familiar and that I had not experienced it for a long time. It was the stress I carried in my body during the onslaught of outrage that was the political landscape for me, pre-pandemic. Stress was transformed into fear and anxiety. The pandemic oddly had re-ordered my inner equilibrium. Perhaps it was because I was focusing more on essentials.
The spiritual work of the pandemic for me was finding peace in the midst of uncertainty and drawing deeply on inner resources, the place where the still small voice of God reverberates in the human heart. I needed to know peace and foundationally, I did.
Now the engines of mayhem, fear, and hate are revving again….a seeming “back to normal.” But unlike before times, I do not want to succumb to the roar. Peace is left with me…and us.
The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector