The 'peace' the gospel brings is never the absence of conflict, but an ineffable divine reassurance within the heart of conflict; a peace that surpasses understanding.
Interpretation
True peace is found not in the absence of conflict, but in the presence of inner reassurance amidst turmoil.
Walter Wink's quote suggests that genuine peace is not merely about avoiding conflict; rather, it manifests as a profound sense of assurance and tranquility within one’s heart even when facing challenges. It emphasizes that this inner peace transcends logical understanding, reflecting a deeper spiritual or emotional state that defies external circumstances.
In practice
During a meditation session focused on finding inner peace amidst life's challenges.
In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations . . . If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa . . . the independence movement in India . . .) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world.
Evil can be opposed without being mirrored. Oppressors can be resisted without being emulated. Enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.
A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange. Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not mere companionship.
Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!
How strange to have failed as a social creature—even criminals do not fail that way—they are the law's "Loyal Opposition," so to speak. But the insane are always mere guests on earth, eternal strangers carrying around broken decalogues that they cannot read.
We first observe facts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.
Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery.
No such thing as a man willing to be honest - that would be like a blind man willing to see.
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