Real Peace

I watched the movie "Air Force One" with Harrison Ford the other night. It was okay. Some parts were really intense and cool, but overall the movie was quite silly and unbelievable. However, there was one line in the movie that Harrison Ford said that was worth watching the whole movie just to hear. In a speech he makes to Russian and American diplomats he says,

"Real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it's the presence of justice."

What an amazing statement! How true that the mere lack of conflict doesn't mean that peace has been fully realized, but it is only through the execution or "presence" of justice that actually gives peace its true meaning or fulfillment. I think about what Jesus did for us on the Cross. The peace we now have with God (i.e. Romans 5:1) does not mean that we simply have the absence of offenses toward God (thought that is true), but we actually have positive status of justice/righteousness being fully met because of Jesus' obedient life and shed blood for our offenses.

Ordinarily, I don't like to get my theology from Hollywood movies, but this was too true to pass up. It is also a reminder that the writer of that line in the movie still possesses the imago dei. And I will rejoice at the truth from wherever it may come.