real peace and peace symbols

I was looking at some girls’ belts in Target today, and I noticed that half of them had peace symbols for buckles.

I got to thinking about when I was in the army in the late 60’s, early 70’s. I wore a peace sign at the time.
I had a large one I wore under my uniform shirt. I guess I had the idea that if I were captured by the enemy (not much chance in Darmstadt, Germany) and had my clothing removed in preparation for torture, that they would see I was basically peaceful by nature.

Of course, they could also have thought that I was an idiot. I also had a peace sign ring that I wore on my right ring finger. It even had a leather band that quickly rotted so I replaced it with a shoelace.

It probably looked stupid.

I had those peace symbols for two reasons:
1,    It was cool in my peer group and
2.    I was a knucklehead.

When I went into the army, I found out pretty quickly that the peer group I liked were the heads. Heads, if you told them to, would leave you alone. Juicers (drunks) would slobber all over you anyway.

And besides, I like the drug culture music a lot. I have never really liked country western music. So the choice was not hard. I became a head. And if you were a head, you had a peace symbol.

I wore it proudly, and proudly pursued the head lifestyle, took my drugs, said Cool and Far Out and listened to Jimi Hendrix and all that stuff.

Of course, I was a knucklehead. The war in Vietnam was about more than just a bunch of fools marching in the street. It was about trying to save a group of people from Communist overthrow. The minute we left in 1974, the Communists came in and took over. The country is a totalitarian regime today. There is no freedom there.

All because a bunch of idiots wore peace signs.

It seems to me that the people who fight for peace are the bravest. They are the heroes.

The people, on the other hand, that protest for peace and wear all the paraphernalia are the knuckleheads. It is easy to stand back and protest. It requires no courage, because you know the Constitution protects your right to protest and the police really can’t do anything about it.

When Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, he wasn’t talking about the peace protestors. He was talking about those who gave their lives in the pursuit of peace.

There are many ways to give your life to the pursuit of peace: you may be a missionary working in hard territory where you can’t even tell your friends where you are for fear of the government. You may be a preacher preaching in a hostile situation, trying to bring the grace of God to people. You may be a soldier fighting in defense of a group of people who are in physical danger.

Standing and occupying buildings, or shouting from a street corner, or throwing bricks in the name of peace or wearing giant peace signs – that is not peacemaking. That is acting and staging. Nothing more.

Peace is more than just a cessation of hostilities. It is more than getting people to quit doing stuff. Many times that is motivated more from cowardice that anything else, a fear of someone doing something to you. You ask for peace because it is easier than having to fight for it.

Ecclesiastes 3:8 says that there is a time for war and a time for peace. Sometimes you just have to fight, and sometimes you don’t. In speaking of the false prophets of his time, Jeremiah records the Lord has saying, They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 8:11). They were calling the wrong thing peace.

Jesus said that he came to bring something different than what we expected: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). He said also that the peace we sought was not going to come from this world or anything we do here. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

The apostle Paul said that people in the world do not really know what peace is, anyway. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Romans 3:15-18).

You want real peace? Ephesians 2:14 says that he himself is our peace.

Real peace always comes at a price. And that price is your life.

Peace, dude. The peace, that is, that passes understanding.