The Peace We Long For: Advent in Disorienting Times | Day 17

Finding Peace and Courage in the Crazy

^20-21 But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

^22-23 Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.

Jude 1:17–24

Advent meets us in a season of uncertainty. Let’s be real, it is crazy out there!

Remember that feeling when you were a kid, after spinning in circles for minutes on end?  I think that is how many of us feel—by the state of the world, by shifting relationships, and even by questions about faith itself. The letter of Jude was written to a community experiencing similar confusion and disorientation because of internal strife, personally and within the community at-large. Rather than offering rigid answers, Jude offers guidance for how to remain grounded when things feel unsteady.

In this passage, peace is not described as the absence of struggle or doubt. Instead, peace is a way of staying rooted in love while acknowledging the reality of fear and conflict. Jude invites the community to remember who they are, to build themselves up in love, and to trust that they are held by grace even when their footing feels unsure. 

You green-thumbed people know this truth: the deeper the roots, the healthier and stronger the plants.

Peace, then, is not about pretending everything is fine. It is about choosing connection over isolation and mercy over judgment.

Jude recognizes that some people doubt, some are afraid, and some are being pulled toward despair. The response is not exclusion, but compassion. Peace grows when we make space for questions (our own and others’) and resist the urge to simplify the complex realities we face.

In our lives, peace may look like slowing down when everything urges us to rush. It may look like releasing the need to be certain to be faithful. In the world, peace becomes an act of resistance: refusing dehumanization, practicing justice rooted in compassion, and standing with those most vulnerable to harm.

As we wait during Advent, we are not waiting for clarity so much as courage—the courage to stand firm and stay tender in a disorienting world. Jude reminds us that we are not responsible for holding everything and everyone together. We are invited to trust the One who “is able to keep us from falling,” and to let peace take root, even now.

Prayer: God of mercy, in a world that feels unsteady, teach us the peace that comes not from certainty, but from love. Help us stay rooted when we feel disoriented. Help us show mercy when fear would be easier. Help us trust that even when we stumble, we are held by grace. As we wait for light to break into the darkness, may peace grow among us—In our hearts, In our communities, And in our world. Amen.