Fourth Sunday of Advent: Peace

Again, I know that this post isn't actually going up on the Sunday before Christmas. In fact, it is going up the day before (Christmas Eve). I decided it would be better to space out the last three posts in the series but actually get them done instead of posting them back to back and having nobody read them or have time to really think about the message.

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, I like to reflect on messages of peace. We live in such a turbulent world, and it has been turbulent for such a long time. This Christmas season, as I ponder on the tragedies happening at home and abroad, I find myself asking the same question asked in the hymn by Emma Lou Thayne.

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul? 
Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.
He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

I keep seeing photo slideshows in my Facebook newsfeed, highlighting the past year for different friends. The headline is "It's been a great year! Thanks for being a part of it!"

The thing is, for me and Gretch, there has been a lot of heartache, a lot of sorrow, a lot of loss, a lot of pain. Many things we had fervently hoped would come to pass didn't and things we thought were going well weren't. It could be really easy for both of us to write this past year off as one of the worst ones we've had together. That may be why verse two of this hymn is so poignant to me. It is an acknowledgement that things don't always work out the way we want when we want how we want.

And yet.

Isn't that the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? In the Book of Mormon, there are several chapters from the Book of Alma that record sermons Alma, the son of Alma, delivered to the people of Zarahemla, Gideon, and Ammonihah. I would commend all of these chapters to you, but for the purpose of this post, I want to focus on a few specific passages:

Alma 5:26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

Alma 7:11-12 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Alma 7:23-24 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

Can you sing the song of redeeming love? Do you believe that Christ suffered all things so that he could ease your own burdens? Do you have faith, hope, and charity? If you can answer yes to these questions, then I would suggest that you can find peace, even in the midst of trouble and sorrow. I know I have. The past year has been really rough on us, but there have been amazing things, too. Those are the things I choose to focus on.

Where can I turn for peace? The only place where peace can truly be found: in the arms of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And if He isn't the one you turn to for peace, I truly hope that you do have someone or something in your life that is your anchor, your guide, your stay. After all, we all need someone to lean on!

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