Finding Peace in a Troubled World – June 02, 2002
Today’s world surrounds us with conflict and confusion. The headlines are filled with violence and tragedy, and we are frequently challenged by conditions we can’t control. The world changes so quickly and roars so loudly, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and fearful.
Inner peace in a troubled world comes from recognizing that our inner convictions outweigh our external circumstances. While we can’t always shape life’s events, we can each decide how those events will shape us. Despite injustice or doubts, we can choose to believe that “there abides a peace of [God] man did not make, and can not mar.”1
Being at peace with ourselves and the world does not mean we are never fearful, confused, or frustrated; but when peace abides in us, we can more easily overcome our fears and frustrations, leaving to God those things we can’t control or change.
Inner peace comes from recognizing that neither our personal problems nor the way nations rage can change any of the lasting realities of our existence. Knowing that our true happiness hinges not on life’s challenges but on how we respond to them, we can move confidently forward with a soul-deep calm no storm can shake.
Albert Camus wrote, “In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer.”2 We can each cultivate that type of peaceful inner resolve that allows us to boldly face life’s setbacks, adversities, and sorrows.
Although life’s unpredictable paths may force us to face overwhelming odds, to cope with bitter disappointments, and to endure deepening trials, we can each experience a buoyant, personal peace that will always carry us through—safe and victorious.
Program #3798
1. Matthew Arnold, Lines Written in Kensington Gardens, stanza 10, quoted in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 14th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1980), 711.
2. Quoted in Robert Fulghum, Words I Wish I Wrote (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), 13.