Peace, Which Transcends All Understanding, Including a Yalie's
Oct 24, 2012 | By April Koh TD ‘14
We hear it a lot in the Christian community: "Lord, give us Your peace, which transcends all understanding."
It's almost become cliché -- like, whenever we say "peace," we have to tack on that verse from Philippians 4:7: "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
But what on earth does "transcend[ing] all understanding" entail? What does that peace even look like?
Here are some practical pictures of that kind of peace for Yalies:
Peace even when you have three mid-terms and a paper due tomorrow
Peace even when your roommate sexiles you every weekend
Peace even when all the members of your a cappella group/YPU party/section begin to annoy you, extremely
Peace even when you've realized you've gained fifteen pounds and haven't exercised in three months
Peace even when your crush of three years randomly starts dating someone
Peace even when a professor at office hours asks you what you want to do with your life, and you fumble to sound intelligent -- or at least, respectable
In a Yalie's understanding, in our understanding, all of the above examples would warrant stressing, emotional froyo-tripping, and anxious grouchiness.
But the peace of Christ, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts against those attacks of despair.
Keep on fighting, Yalies.
December 15, 2023 | Lily Lawler BK ‘23
During the winter months when the world is pulled into the deep sleep of hibernation, we look to the beginning of spring as a time for us to emerge from our rest into the light of longer days. The year is a breathing body moving between seasons of rest and productivity. But the world around us has turned it into a grinding machine that churns out work non-stop and year-round without fail. We have become trained to think about our lives like a perpetual season of spring, all fruit and flower with no room for barrenness.