I’ve been blessed to be inside Jerusalem’s Garden Tomb several times. I’ve seen the extra space hollowed out to accommodate a man of taller than average height. Stillness and darkness ruled in that place for three days while guards stood outside to make sure nothing changed. Except they could not stop life from emerging, or darkness becoming light.

Death can’t stop life. Nothing can stop a living seed from pushing sprouts up or sending anchoring roots down. We’ve all seen sidewalks or driveways where insistent plants pop up through cracks and with sunshine and rain, grow big enough to open those cracks wider until the covering cement may entirely crumble with time. Below is the Crown of Thorns on the Ceiling of the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa.

I have an inspiring pastor friend. Steve Ruetschle, who at age forty, suffered a motorcycle accident that almost killed him. He is legally a quadriplegic, but he and his loving family pushed back and didn’t accept that. Although he still has no nerve feeling,  today with great effort and dogged determination, he is capable of walking short distances and pastors and preaches heart-stirring sermons. He practices “minute prayers” to maintain peace. He inhales the Lord’s word “Peace” and exhales “be still” on waking and at many other opportune times during the day.

The Lord may give you other phrases, but “minute prayers” work. The Pharisees were known for long-winded prayers with many words. The sinner simply prayed, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and he was heard.

Maintaining peace is as simple as breathing. And breathing is essential to life.