Let peace begin with me

For some reason, which I have yet to figure out, a close friend of mine and I enrolled in PE Ballet this past semester. In our outfits, complete with tights, leotards, and the very important ballet shoes, Kelsie and I walked out to the dance floor every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I wish I could say that our talent was so surprisingly exceptional that our instructor promoted us to the next level. Unfortunately, that is simply not true. We were a disaster. Each movement of our arms and legs looked strained and unnatural. Without fail, each class proved to be a freshly humiliating and yet hilariously fun experience.

While most of the classes run together in my mind as merely humorous moments falling one after another, there is one particular class that I doubt I will ever forget. Towards the end of a class our ballet instructor had begun to challenge us with an impossible combination which included various leaps and twists to be performed across the room. As the first girl prepared to execute the complicated routine, the pianist began to play a tune that was enormously familiar to me, the classic hymn, "Let There be Peace on Earth." I could not get over the feeling that the very last thing that was happening in my world at the moment was peaceful. Instead, my dancing offered neither peace nor grace, but rather a strange and foolish trudge along the floor.

In fact, ballet class was not the only aspect of my life that was not peaceful at that moment. Many of my co-curricular activities had become overwhelming, as the turmoil involved with the each of them had begun to mount. Not only that, but challenging classes had made my evenings of studying anything but peaceful. My little life at TCU during the time had rarely reflected peace.

But the truth is that as chaotic as my daily life is, the daily life on this revolving globe seems even more topsy-turvy. It is often easy for me to get lost in the rush of my small college world and forget the enormous community outside of the TCU fences. On the rare days that I am home to watch the 5:30 national news it is always freshly shocking at the incredible lack of peace out there. From burglaries taking place down the street to wars being fought in too many lands, peace is hard to find. As depressing as these images on the television are, I am thankful to be reminded of our world on many occasions. One of the earliest lessons I learned in church centered on the peace that God calls us to seek. In John 14: 27 Jesus speaks of the peace he hopes for us by saying, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you." Although perhaps buried in this imperfect world, the peace Jesus gave us can surely be brought back to the surface, no matter how challenging that might be. In these harsh times, what else can be done but for us all to each continually search for God's grace and peace?

So as I twirled around the room that day, no doubt dizzying myself, peace seemed to be spinning away from me in the opposite direction. Despite my unclear directional sense it was enormously obvious to me that imagining peace on earth is the most beautiful image. And to reach a place where that image is observed in mine own life and throughout the world I will accept and hope that God will "let it begin with me."