Giving Peace a Chance

I have an annoying neighbor. To be fair, I’m pretty sure my neighbor would say the same thing about me. We’ve clashed a few times over noise levels, each of us explaining our position to the other and feeling strongly about being right. So far, nothing has changed.

It’s gotten so that I dread seeing him because I don’t want to talk with him and stir up my internal agitation. But lately I’ve noticed something. I’m carrying feelings of annoyance and disturbance even when I do not see him, even when there is no noise. Even during long periods of quiet, there is a cacophony roiling me from within as I ruminate over my feelings of righteousness and my inability to control someone else’s behavior to get what I want.

Of course, this was not a comfortable realization to make. I wrote in this year’s Advent booklet about how peace is an inside job. And, as anyone in Unity knows, it’s not enough to understand or talk about spiritual truth. We must live it.

Choosing Peace

I realized I needed peace more than I needed quiet. I knew what I had to do, and it wasn’t pleading my case or avoiding my neighbor. I had to find the peace I was seeking within myself. Simply acknowledging that truth helped me relax as I remembered that all I have complete control over is myself and my reactions.

My dilemma is a common one. It’s only natural to look for reasons in our outer lives when we wonder why peace eludes us. It’s also natural to think the way to peace is trying to change other people or forcing our will upon unwanted situations. We learn—over and over again—this approach only drives peace further away.

Wanting to find peace this time, I remembered two key spiritual truths. First, everything comes to pass. Reviewing other troubling circumstances over the years, I recalled other annoying situations and interpersonal conflicts that always resolved in one way or another. Like those situations, this one, too, shall pass. Until it does, I can find peace in understanding my conflict with my neighbor is temporary.

As I focus more and more on the divine life within me, I attract myself to the people and situations I want to have in my life.

Second, any troubling situation can be used for spiritual growth. Investing emotional energy in what I don’t like is only going to keep me tethered to what is bothering me and prolong my discomfort. But if I use it as an opportunity to deepen in peace, my energy and attention are helping me grow. There may always be unwelcome developments, but my peaceful consciousness can influence how often they happen and how long they last. As I focus more and more on the divine life within me, I attract myself to the people and situations I want to have in my life.

Giving the Gift of Peace

This Sunday as we meditate upon peace along the Advent journey, let’s claim it by being the peaceful presence we have been praying for. When we embody peace instead of wishing or waiting for it, we are no longer at the mercy of outside circumstances. In this way we claim our spiritual power, which is so much more potent than any worldly power we could hope to assert. Like a tree with deep roots anchoring it in place, our peaceful bearing similarly anchors us. When the winds of discord and disagreement whip around us, we stay rooted in peace.

This is the gift we give to ourselves, one another, and the world. This Christmas let’s discover the peace of God where it quietly resides—in every wise and loving heart.