Peace is being in a perfect relationship with God. You cannot have PEACE with God apart from the loving GRACE of God. This is why the apostle Paul began each of his letters with the words, "Grace and peace to each of you..." There is no peace without Jesus, the Prince of Peace!
The Dalai Lama said that serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace within the storm. I think peace is a calm, regardless of what chaos surrounds one.
I'm glad that you've mentioned this! I just happened to have read in my bible the story of how the apostles were trying to get across the Sea of Gallilee, in the middle of a storm, with Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat. Now imagine what this was like:
Your in a storm...land is NOWHERE in sight...in the middle of the night...your fighting hopelessness and fear...bailing water like no tomorrow...when you hear...
SNORING! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
You look over...and there is your "Savior"...sleeping like a baby! You lose it: "LORD! Don't you care about us enough if we drown or not?" This wakes up Jesus. He looks around at all of you. He walks over to the front of the boat and calls out to the storm, "PEACE! BE NOW STILL!"
And everything literally comes to a dead stop! No wind...no waves...no problems...
But then Jesus turns back to you and says, "Oh, you of LITTLE FAITH! Why did you doubt me?"
That is when you realize that His command was more to YOU, than for the STORM.
This reminds me of that old story about two painters who were asked to paint "Peace." One painted a beautiful tropical island, with a prominently-displayed nest of a beautiful bird caring for its young. The other painted the same island ravaged by a hurricane, and the mother bird was blocking the wind with her body, allowing her babies to sleep peacefully in the nest.
.....to be honest, I'm not sure about the point of that story.
Does that help?
__________________
"I'd place myself... oh... somewhere between Galadriel and Peter Griffin."
