Practicing Peace
With the devastating unfoldment of the Russo-Ukrainian war, there is a call to peace in the world, far more significant than I have ever observed. My social media feeds are filled with prayers of peace and hope for Ukraine.
Our prayers for peace are empty if we find ourselves at war in our minds and hearts, for example, when we experience inner conflict with our beliefs, unforgiveness, resentment, judgment, shame, guilt, and even complaining. To experience the peace we desire, we must dissolve the structures we have built up against peace. So today, let’s plant seeds of peace.
Scripture states, “A double-minded person is unstable in all their ways.” [James 1:8] Someone with a double-mind has in the mind opposite or opposing views at different times. They are restless and confused in their thoughts, actions, and behaviors. Such a person is always in conflict with themself. One torn by such inner conflict can never lean confidently into the God of their understanding.
Correspondingly, the term unstable is analogous to a drunken person who cannot walk a straight line, swaying one way, then another. They have no defined direction and, as a result, do not get anywhere. Such a person is “unstable in all they do.”
If my prayer is for peace and I am holding onto resentment, I am unstable in all my ways. If you are hoping and praying for an experience of peace, your call to action is to be the peace you desire to see in the world. The world I see is the world in me, and if I see war, conflict, people suffering, fear, and more, how does that reflect my consciousness?
Hope is not a strategy. Sometimes, hope is the next rung on the ladder that can lift us out of despair; however, we must continue to the next rung and not rest on our laurels. We must get to work. Forgive, be kind, study peace until you become a peaceful presence in the world, no matter what.
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. It is confidence or trust not based on proof. Hope is an optimistic attitude of mind based on an expectation and desire. Faith says it is so now. Hope says, well, maybe it might happen if we are lucky in the future.
Faith is like the gasoline for your car. You have your car and hope to go to Carmel. Without gas, you’re not going to get very far. You have the fuel to get there when you put the gas in your vehicle. You don’t simply hope to get there in a car with no gas. You have an action to take. Please put the fuel in your vehicle as you continue to pray for peace. Have faith that your consciousness makes a difference and that your work to know peace in your own life affects the world.
And so it is.
