Inner Peace: How to Be the Calm in the Center of the Storm
by Lucia Sweetland
Lose of peace
What is the root of all that causes us to lose our peace? Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and fires; wars, political upheavals, and civil unrest; the financial crisis, the health care crisis, the education crisis; homelessness, poverty, unemployment – is your stomach in a knot yet? How can we have inner peace with all this going on?
Since “inner peace” is something that we experience “inside” of us, it doesn't actually matter what is going on “outside” of us, although it surely seems to. Yet, peace is a natural part of who we are because it is a quality of God and we are children of God. Therefore, we can’t actually “lose” our peace; when we seem to lose our peace what actually has happened is that something unnatural to us has taken over us inside seemingly beyond our control. That something is fear.
We don’t exactly choose to feel fear - who in their right mind would deliberately choose to feel the agony of fear over the quiet serenity of peace? It’s just that it’s easy to give credence to the thoughts that produce fear, and once fear is let in, it can quickly escalate to the point of running us entirely, at least temporarily.
Opening the heart to true peace
Christian scripture talks about the peace that “passes all understanding”. What is this peace that passes all understanding? It is God’s peace. This begs the question of whether or not there is some other kind of peace, such as "human" peace. If there is such a thing as human peace, is it a true peace or is it rather a false sort of peace that pretends there is no fear and “leaves” as soon as things get rough?
A well-known Jewish prayer calls for God to “lift up his countenance to thee, and give Thee peace”. How does God give us peace? What does this process look like? Is it dropped in our lap, put in our bank account, stocked in our refrigerator? Maybe we open up our hands and hold them out for peace to be placed within them. Or maybe we open up our minds and the thought of peace gives us rest and reassurance. Although all of this sounds good, the key to peace isn’t found in outer circumstances, in our bodies or in our minds. The key to inner peace is in our hearts.God is concealed in every heart; his light is in every heart.” Sikhism
“God bides hidden in the hearts of all.” Hinduism
“The heart of him who knows, and so believes with full assurance, is the throne of God.” Islam
It is when we focus within our hearts and open them to God that we find the way to inner peace; the way to being the eye in the center of whatever storm is raging around us. Perhaps nobody knows what it means to find peace in the midst of a raging storm more than Immaculée Ilibagiza. In her book, Left to Tell, she tells of being hidden for months in a small bathroom with six other women during the Rwandan genocide – murder and mayhem raging sometimes literally right outside the door. She writes,
“I found a place in the bathroom to call my own: a small corner of my heart. I retreated there as soon as I awoke, and stayed there until I slept. It was my sacred garden, where I spoke with God, meditated on His words, and nurtured my spiritual self.
“When I meditated, I touched the source of my faith and strengthened the core of my soul. With horror swirled around me I found refuge in a world that became more welcoming and wonderful with each visit.”
Trust in God
Having faith in tough times isn’t easy, as Immaculée would surely testify; faith is earned in the trenches, through facing the difficulties of life and learning to trust the love of God over whatever would tempt us to fear. Yet, even with just a beginning foundation in faith, we have an anti-dote to fear – the fear that seems to rob us of our peace. Faith gives us the ability to hold steady and still as the storms swirl around us. Faith grows in the sacred garden of our hearts wherein the perfect love of God casts out all fear, leaving the “peace that passes all understanding” - the Peace of God that will never leave us, the Peace that has always been there, waiting for us to do what is simple, yet not easy – to abide with God within our hearts; to be the calm in the center of the storm, steady and still like a candle flame untouched by wind, glowing within our hearts, illuminating our world from within to without:
Lap pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
Zindagi shama ki surat ho Khudaya meri,
Door duniya ka mere dam se andhera hojaye,
Har jagah mere chamakne se ujala hojaye.
Written by Freedom fighter Dr. Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal, this children's prayer is often sung in morning assemblies in India. The English translation is:
My heart's desire comes to my lips as a prayer
God, make my life as one of a candle, a guiding light,
My presence would destroy the darkness of this world,
And my burning light would illumine all space.
Thy Peace be with us ever more.
Amen.