After two-plus years of instrospective soul-searching, I think I have determined that my heart and mind are ultimately yearning desperately for peace. At the end of every neural pathway, be it trichotillomania, food addiction, shopping, alcohol, spiritual flagellation, or simple control-freakiness, is a sense of relief, be it ever so momentary, from my fear and anxiety. I often equate “peace” with this absence of fear, but I’m not 100% sure that’s accurate.
I have begun the process of defining what peace means to me; personal peace, cultural peace and global peace. I’ve posed the question to a couple of online groups, but I want to broaden my quest. Thus, I am seeking the help of anyone who reads this post.
I genuinely want to know your thoughts! You don’t have to be brief or particularly literary or cohesive. Feel free to ramble, misspell or whatever. There’s no judgement on a post about peace!
Please, consider/meditate on/pray about and respond to the following:
- What does peace mean to you in your personal heart of hearts?
- What does peace mean to you in your interactions with others and in your particular culture?
- What does peace mean to you among all humanity, across cultural, spiritual, racial and national borders?
I excitedly look forward to contemplating your responses!! Feel free to share books or quotes you’ve read that might help us as we discern this topic as well.
The following quote, by Frederick Buechner, was shared by my friend, Martha. If you know her, you know she exudes peace. I absolutely love the way this makes me think.
I too am learning about this, or rather I’m more aware now that peace doesn’t mean the feeling of relief or non-disturbance I have when everything is OK. Much of the problem is, I think, that I live in so much comfort on a regular basis. I’ve never lived in war. Most of the time, I’m not aware of someone being really mad at me or someone really not liking me, even though I’m sure that happens a lot without my knowing. What kind of long term disturbance would it take to get me to understand what it’s like to have peace during turbulence? I don’t want to find out. But I want to find out, too.
Marni, that is so true. The majority of my lack of personal peace right now is probably self-inflicted. We don’t live in a war zone, and no one overtly persecutes me. I’m bothered by arguments on social media, but all I have to do is click a button to make it go away, It’s all too easy to stick my head in the sand and ignore the unrest around the world. And yet…I feel a general sense of unease most of the time?
I generally don’t feel a sense of unease but know people who do or who seem to. Whenever I have conflict in a relationship, with the following grief and anxiety that lasts for days, that’s when I’m able to see how much my sense of peace relies on circumstances rather than faith in God. But I suppose God allows us reactionary feelings of grief and anxiety for a reason too, just like pain alerts us to injury. We just need to not dwell there forever and instead go to Him and sit on His lap.