By Kristen Lowery
Staff Writer
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said people should be “the conscience of the society to which (we) belong … rather than consider life as it is reflected in opinions, events and circumstances …” we should mold events in order to put our principles into practice.
In a world that seems to be plagued with the impossibility of peace, we tend to close our eyes and hope that the monsters of evil, negativity, conflict and opposition will be gone when we open them again. The only time we will experience that is when the lids are drawn upon our eyes for the final time.
We must guard our spirits and world against propaganda and the seduction of romanticized war. There is war in the near future and although we cannot see it, it is nonetheless exist. However, a peaceful solution cannot be found by shutting out the pain in fear and frustration. It is possible to be proactive in this time but it must start with the individual. We must seek peace within.
The only successful method of finding peace within is in a proactive relationship with God. Everything else is fallible and will disappoint in time. To initiate this conversation with God, there must first be a recognition of to whom you are speaking. Most people would call these conversations prayer, although prayer has a more specific purpose than simple conversation. The Bible promises that prayer will be heard and acted upon according to the will of God.
Therefore, prayer is moving in a direction to begin finding inner peace. In “A Certain World,” W.H. Auden describes prayer as a dictionary would in its basic form, as an example of how to pray.
“To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself,” Auden wrote. “Whenever a man so concentrates his attention — on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol or the true God — that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying.”
When we pray we are becoming vulnerable by taking the focus off ourselves for a cause that is larger than individual existence.
Many people would opt to focus on personal desires to feed the ego in a “typical” day. However, we find that in the current state of the world there is nothing “typical” about war. Its unpredictability and violent roots stagnate our pursuit of peace in spirit and in the physical world. Whether our focus is on the troops, Iraq, or the leaders of America in this time, there is little room for egoism and a great need for prayer. Prayer will reduce the anxiety, confusion and risk of an ulcer that the discombobulation of this war has brought into our lives.
In early August 1945 during a preliminary briefing session concerning the bombing of Nagasaki, Chaplain Downey conducted a prayer that expresses an appropriate request from God for peace. As we trust God with our anxieties during this war, prayer is in order whether one is a pacifist or an active participant in the war.
“Almighty God, father of all mercies, we pray thee to be gracious with those who fly this night,” Downey said “Guard and protect those of us who venture out into the darkness of thy heaven. Uphold them on thy wings. Keep them safe both in body and soul and bring them back to us. Give to us all the courage and strength for the hours that are ahead; give to them rewards according to their efforts. Above all else, our father, bring peace to thy world. May we go forward trusting in thee and knowing we are in thy presence now and forever. Amen.”
— Think you’ve found that perfect love in Christ? E-mail Kristen Lowery at sklowrey@pepperdine.edu.
March 20, 2003