Personal Peacemaking—Living from the Center

Much of the contemplative literature—from both our own and the Eastern meditative traditions—calls us back to the inner life, the center from which all action flows. In the Quaker tradition it is the realm of the "inner light." Psychological language speaks of wholeness, centering, and individuation. That sense of inner connectedness is essential to all peacemaking. In Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly says:

The experience of the Presence is the experience of peace, and the experience of peace is the experience not of inaction but of power, and the experience of power is the experience of a pursuing Love that loves its way untiringly to victory. One who knows the Presence knows peace and s/he who knows peace knows power and walks in complete faith that that objective Power and Love which has overtaken us will overcome the world. (Kelly, 1941)

Art Simon, author of Bread for the World, said: "Christians are twice-converted people. They are first converted from the world to Jesus Christ, but then they are converted back to the world again, to love the world and relate to the world, no longer as before but now through the heart and mind of Christ." (Simon, 1985) Thus, living out of the Center ultimately brings us back into community.