Shalom

These past couple of weeks I had a trip planned that involved 9 airports, 8 flights, 1 train, 1 van, and 2 long car rides, all during a global conflict. The countries where I was traveling also required extra special care following the laws. Thankfully I made it around the world without a problem.  This brought peace but it was not the source of my Shalom.

My peace during this trip was the absence of difficulty. But even though in English we translate Shalom as peace the word has greater depth. Shalom is not just the absence of problems. Its root meaning is "completeness," "soundness," or "wholeness." It describes a state where things are as they should be—spiritually, physically, and relationally. I am not an expert in Chinese but I am told that 平安 has a very similar meaning to Shalom.  The second character is a woman under a roof. I was under God’s care and guidance because I was living under his Mission.

When the Israelites completed taking the land it says in Joshua 14:15 “Then the land had rest from war.” Many would call this achieving peace. In our world today with the many terrible wars that exist if we had rest from war we would call it peace. But the writer did not use the word Shalom. He used the word שָׁקַט which we translate rest. The Israelites were not in Shalom because the Israelites were still broken and not complete in their relationship with their God. We see that after the death of Joshua that they did not achieve Shalom because they did not continue to fulfill their part in God’s mission. Rest is what happens when the fighting stops; Shalom is what happens when the healing begins.

When Jesus said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19,21,26; Luke 24:36) to the apostles he clearly was not telling them that their problems were over, they were complete because their purpose for life was to fulfill their part in God’s mission. As with Christ they were to heal the broken, bring hope to the hopeless, share forgiveness with the forsaken.  We see the apostles flourish because they realized that they were sent by God to bring Shalom.

We are sent by God to bring Shalom. We do not live our lives to simply avoid pain, difficulty, or loss. We thrive during the hardships of the world because our God has sent us to bring this hope to this world. In my trip I did not have Shalom because it went smoothly. I had Shalom because God is using me and using our church to preach the gospel to the poor, proclaim the release of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord.

Peace seeks an exit from the struggle; Shalom seeks the restoration of the struggler. Are we living to find Peace or are we living to find Shalom?