Peace, Not Stoicism

Stoicism is one route to pseudo-peace. Making yourself indifferent to the world around you might numb the senses and the mind but it does not bring true peace. True peace doesn't come through indifference. True peace is found in the tension of living in and through difficult, even dire, circumstances while recognizing that we don't have to allow those things to make us anxious or afraid.We are called to be peace, not stoicism. We are called to find peace without indifference, which often means our peace must be found not in spite of things like mercy and compassion but through things like mercy and compassion and love.Peace does not come through toughening ourselves up to be unaffected by the world. To be unmoved. No. Peace comes while still being moved by things that should move us. It is found through our connection with the world around us through by our recognition that there truly is One who is sovereign over all of it, who at the end of the day has every knee bow and tongue confess to His Lordship...and we are His. We can be people of peace not because all is well or not because we learn to ignore it but because this world belongs to Him and by faith we live in the present in light of the future when God finally rights all wrongs and makes all things new.If you find your soul hardening and your heart calcifying against the world in order to distance yourself toward finding peace in your soul I hope you will reconsider.