“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

I once had a friend who scoffed at this promise from the apostle Paul.. My friend said that “believing” was a way of avoiding understanding, which meant that there was really no peace at all. I was in college, and it seemed academically correct to think as my friend thought, but at the same time I believed that such a peace must be true, and maybe even available, if someone such as Paul could write of it. He, at least, must have experienced it, for he lived a turbulent life that could easily have deprived him of peace. The message of peace that Paul wrote is preceded by these words: “The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. (Philippians 4:6) Paul was apparently writing of something not entirely accessible to our understanding, but experienced and even functioning in our belief of God in Christ.

Another saint, who lived at a very turbulent time in Spain, the time of the Spanish Inquisition; ST. John of the Cross, wrote about believing and understanding: “ A soul must journey more by believing than understanding.” (The Ascent of Mount Carmel)

It seems like a license to disregard “understanding” and believe whatever one wants to be true; but both saints were describing the relationship of a child who “understands” very little of his or her parent, but “believes” the parent entirely. Belief without understanding seems like a slippery slope, but these two saints agree that it is the only way to peace that endures and enables our relationship with a holy God. The child grows in understanding, but relies on an unbreakable bond with his of her parents. God seeks that in every one of us, according to both the Old and the New Testaments: Comfort, comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, (Isaiah 40:1)

Ask, . . .Seek, and knock. If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? (Matthew 7:11) Understanding the world could destroy our peace, but believing in the One who created it and died for it, can bring us the peace that passes understanding. “The Lord is near.”

Love in Him,

Prue