by Matthew Sitman
Pivoting off of Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer, Carl McColman meditates on the difficulties of finding inner peace while engaging a turmoil-ridden world:
Ironically, when we discern that the peace we enjoy is rooted not in God, but in privilege or in avoiding conflict, such discerning insight is likely to cause us to feel like our "peace" is suddenly lost. Indeed, I suspect one reason why so many people—including many sincere and devout Christians—work hard to ignore or avoid the overwhelming reality of economic and social injustice, environmental degradation, and other types of conflict in our world, may simply be because of how painful it is to face such issues, especially when doing so causes us to question our "analgesic" sense of serenity. Once that questioning takes root in our soul, the "false peace" quickly loses its power to lull us into its false sense of comfort.
The Dish 