Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars … Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
― The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [1929-1968].
A reflection by Christina Brennan Lee for November 9, 2025.
Imagine: The World at Peace. Of course! Who doesn’t want that? Yet the concept is so exponentially large it seems more of a mere wish, too big to be a goal, and reduced to a conversational platitude. Or, is it? When you think of world peace how do you define it? Is it merely the end of all war on the planet or are there other considerations? A few formal definitions describe it as the absence of war, a cessation of hostilities, tranquility. In an ironic construct, whole armies are deployed ostensibly to achieve peace by ending war. No army is ever truly deployed to make peace but rather for power and control, domination, and/or subjugation.
Others wiser than me have said that peace begins within oneself.
And so I must earnestly and frequently search to find some peace within myself, perhaps by breathing very deeply in and out regularly, stepping away from the noise for a tranquil moment. Listening to the birds ~ even when they’re fighting ~ calms me. The laughter of children makes me laugh; as puppies and kittens and butterflies, and turtles sunning on a rock, warm my heart. Even in the depth of winter’s cold, there is the peaceful quiet of a snowy day. As I breathe deeply again and again, the feisty, feckless, fuming, and fraying world is still there, but within it I can find a small moment of inner peace that remains constant.
Yet I must not simply live into a false peace-filled denial in which I only love those who love me.
It is in the steadiness of holding fast within myself, that calls me to return to a place of inner quiet regularly. In prayer, meditation, and/or in simple moments of beauty, I can seek and find that special gift of inner peace. And then I must re-gift that inner peace outwardly to offer a smile, a kind word, and especially some serious personal restraint in response to a severe difference of opinion! World Peace, it seems, does, frighteningly, begin within me, at least in some ways. We must have peace—and hope and joy—at our core that centers and steadies us. It doesn’t mean we are continuously silly happy-clappy fools but rather, in the midst of sad and difficult and even angry moments, we can dig down to find that glimmer of Christ’s light to carry us forward. We can defend, write, march, care about, and join organizations that give us useful tools to, at least in principle, to support those who are in the midst of a war whether in their homes, on our streets, or far across the globe.
We begin by opening the doors to that house that the Lord has already built within us, to seek and sustain the joy that helps us to radiate God’s Eternal Light from the windows of our souls.
We can pray for the courage and intent to follow the teaching we are given in Matthew 5:43-48, offering peaceful greetings and responses that are giving out the love that flows from the ultimate love within us. The love that is beyond like and accepts another as they are as we do not know the stories behind their eyes, but God does. If we are met with anger, disdain, or silence, we simply breathe out a blessing and move on. Will we end war? ~ sadly, no. But peace is in my hands for one person, one moment, one less argument, one less angry retort, one full moment of intention and attention. To breathe the breath of God toward and for another, may be all the peace and perfection I/we have to give; and to give that is what we are called to do. It can be very difficult to love those deemed unlovable or truly hateful and we may have quite legitimate reasons. We might also take time to think about whether our struggle with others is, in some way, a measure of our hesitance to accept God’s love for ourselves.
We are Christ’s ambassadors of continuing hope, love, and inner joy to everyone, evil and good, righteous and unrighteous ~ as it is still, and always, not ours to judge who is worthy. Within myself and out into the ether I say:
You cannot take my hope away
nor steal my inner joy
no matter all the plots and schemes
no matter intent or ploy.
My peace will continue
to grow and to give
to all I encounter
each day that I live.
~c.b.lee
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Every week, Christina Brennan Lee writes the Prayers of the People we use in our worship services on Sundays. She also leads weekday prayer services and serves on the SsAM Vestry. Click here to see her People’s Prayers website.
For more than 25 years, Christina Brennan Lee was a consultant/trainer in the areas of Interpersonal Skills, Conflict Management, Communications, Strategic Planning, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, etc. She has been a consultant to and has been employed in Corporate, Non-Profit, Public/Govt, Educational, and Religious organizations around the US including the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware. Currently through writing, small group facilitation, and the occasional seminar or retreat, she works in the areas of prayer, spirituality, and adult Christian Education. She has an MA in Religious Studies and Vatican Diploma as Teacher of Religion from St. Charles Borromeo School of Theology, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania; BA, AS, Psychology and Human Resource Management from Widener University, Chester, PA; and a Certificate in Non-Profit Management, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
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