Some years ago, our county installed a kayak launch in a park on the headwaters of TVA Lake Nottely. I decided to enjoy the amenity in a different way than other boaters.

I grew up in the country close to a river. Summer days fishing in the creek (only after doing my chores), camping under the stars near the swamp…I was Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Maybe a return to childhood is why I launched my skiff in the Nottely at dusk. I drifted downstream. The kayakers were gone but I was not alone. I lit my lantern as the orange glow sank into the western sky.

It was as though nature began turning up the volume. Peepers, bullfrogs, crickets, and other noisy insects competed for airtime. A screech owl and a lone whip-poor-will added to the chorus. Against the moonlit sky, bats darted about for supper. My presence convinced something heavy to splash nearby. I was mesmerized. I captured audio to share online, but I couldn’t capture the moment.

Recently, I came across the work of Gordon Hempton, a professional sound recorder. He struggled to describe the Amazon rainforest at dusk. “I begin to hear the insect patterns, and how each rhythm is a different insect, especially as the light weakens,” he said. “Oh my God! I realized this is the sound of the spinning Earth, like a huge clock. It’s just so elaborate and precise, beyond human invention.”

Cut to images of destruction and death in Ukraine. Mothers crying. Refugees attacked. Conscripts captured. Body bags. Smoke. Fire. Pleas for help.

The contrast is wrenching. The peaceful chorus of nature at dusk vs. the agonizing cries of humans at war. It points to the deep longings of a restless heart. God reveals much about us through contrasts, which draw out those longings. We desire peace, not war; love, not hate; safety, not danger.  We admire wisdom, not ignorance; beauty, not ugliness; sacrifice, not selfishness.  We cherish life, not death.

The contrasts stir your restless heart for answers.  Here is one. “He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:27-28). In Jesus, your soul has peace, love, safety, and wisdom. He sacrificed His life and makes beauty from ugly so you may enjoy a fulfilled life even when wrong seems strong. The hymnist mused about the music of the spheres, the birds their carols raise, and hearing Him pass in the rustling grass.  Then this: “Oh, let me ne’er forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world.”

When the sublime and suffering on Earth point your heart heavenward, you find peace and meaning. “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” Saint Augustine wrote, “and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”

The 2022 MLB season is delayed by an owner-initiated lockout that ended after 99 days. After two years of pandemic, baseball fans just want it to be about the game. When players started anthem-kneeling in 2017 and Commissioner Manfred moved the All-Star game in 2021, fans longed for simpler times.

Those simpler times exist only in your memories of little league or neighborhood sand lot action. Even in 1945, times were not simple. That’s when an honorably discharged U.S. Army veteran signed to play for Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey was an innovator. He introduced the batting helmet, pitching machines, and the farm system. He also introduced the world to his new recruit Jackie Robinson.

Rickey and Robinson’s meeting at Dodgers headquarters had the makings of a historic moment, not just for baseball. Robinson would be the first black player in the league. “I know you’re a good ballplayer,” Rickey said. “What I don’t know is whether you have the guts.” Rickey wasn’t talking about Robinson staring down heaters in the big leagues, but facing the threats to his life and attacks on his dignity. “I’m looking for a ballplayer,” Rickey said, “with guts enough not to fight back.”

Knowing it would not be easy or simple, Rickey shared with Robinson the words of Jesus. “I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matt. 5:38). By this Jesus put personal retribution and revenge out of bounds. Jesus knew about emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and self-management before Daniel Goleman popularized the terms. It matters because to lose control is to lose sight of your mission. When we who share the life of Christ are wronged, that becomes our opportunity to sacrifice our egos, serve others, and love our neighbor.

Robinson accepted the charge from fellow Christian Rickey and history celebrates the story. Eric Metaxas writes about Robinson, “With God’s help, one man lifted up a whole people and pulled a whole nation into the future.” All because a man of faith simply applied the words of Jesus to turn the other cheek.