Peace Be With You!Намуна

Peace: Cause or Effect?

People generally believe that peace is a result, a payoff, a destination. Deep down we believe that when we achieve a certain level of success, a desired income bracket, a beautiful home, or the ability to take nice vacations, we will achieve peace. Peace is the thing we desire, yet peace eludes us.

When I ask people to pursue peace instead of chasing everything else to have peace, the answer I get is: “I don't know how“. I was one of them at some point in my life.
At the age of fifteen, I had my first colonoscopy. Seems I had a “nervous” stomach, brought on by worry, stress, and anxiety. What did a fifteen‐year‐old have to worry about that would cause enough anxiety to require a colonoscopy? Well, I was a dedicated A student, I worked twenty to thirty hours a week at Wendy’s, I played basketball, and I had an active social life.

I later realized that it wasn’t my external pursuits that caused the anxiety I was experiencing both mentally and physically. It was my mind‐set. For much of my life, I believed my sense of peace was tied to my accomplishments. If and when I accomplished x, then peace would follow. I tried various remedies to remove the anxiety, worry, and stress. Some of them calmed me down temporarily, but nothing eliminated the cause. What I finally discovered is that choosing peace is a cause, not an effect. It doesn’t happen when you check something off of a list, but when you choose to pursue and value peace directly.

Throughout my life’s journey, nothing outside of me has ever given me peace—not my bank account, not nice vacations, not a good marriage. It wasn’t until I began to say this phrase aloud to myself every day “I pursue peace with a positive mind and I live in the power of peace,” that my stress and anxiety began to abate. It was only through the power of managing my own thoughts and through prayer and meditation on scripture that I found the peace I was so desperately seeking.

Peace is the medicine that healed my hurt, built my confidence, corrected my thinking, and has given me boundless strength.

Peace is a choice. Freedom and fearlessness flow from that choice.