Peace. It sounds nice. A state of freedom from conflict. It’s difficult to imagine what it must be like to be in a situation where there is no turmoil: not personally or relationally; no struggle with the past, present or future; no struggle with God. Most of us, if we are honest, have only ever had a glimpse of that kind of peace. The “problem of peace” is that we want it very, very badly, but at the same time, we are terrible at it. Human history, from the beginning, is a tale dominated by our brutal propensity for conflict.

Even so, the hunger for peace remains. That’s the second part of the problem. We want things to be as they should be, but we don’t know what that is. We can only conceive of peace in the negative. Peace is the absence of conflict. Because we don’t know what peace is, we can only guess how to have it. People may try various approaches, hoping something clicks. The pursuit of peace typically falls into two categories: control and escape. Control works like this: “If I exert enough effort, I can force myself, others, my circumstances and even God to do what I want. If I can get everything in my life just like I like it, then I’ll be at peace.” Escape works like this: “If I could just get away from the inner impulses, other people and circumstances that won’t do what I want, then I’d be at peace.” Control + escape = peace. We mix and match control and escape hoping to get just the right formula for peace. The only problem with this formula is that it doesn’t work and in fact, it’s utterly destructive.

Then, into the middle of this mess, comes the audacious claim of Christmas: “Peace on Earth.” It turns out that peace is not the product of control or escape. It is not the absence of conflict but the presence of Someone who neither wants to control us or reject us when we don’t measure up. Unbelievably, He just wants to love us. From Him and only Him comes the gift of a “peace that passes understanding that will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).