Blessed Are The Peacemakers

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe explores what Jesus means when he says, “Peace be with you,” and what it means for us to be peacemakers in a world that often feels anything but peaceful.

Rather than treating peace as the absence of conflict, Bishop DeDe invites us to consider peace as a presence—something that can exist even in the middle of anxiety, grief, and uncertainty. Drawing on the resurrection stories, she reflects on how Jesus meets his frightened, grieving disciples and speaks peace into their locked rooms, not after everything is resolved, but right in the middle of their fear.

Adam names the tension many people feel: wanting peace while also living in a time of constant stress and division. Together, they wrestle with what it actually looks like to “be a peacemaker” in everyday life, especially when most of us are not in positions to solve global problems.

The conversation turns inward as Bishop DeDe describes peace as something that begins within us. When we are honest about our inner life—our doubts, fears, and exhaustion—and bring that before God, peace becomes less about control and more about wholeness, presence, and trust.

They also reflect on doubt, grief, and the way small moments of connection can become glimpses of resurrection and peace in real life. Peace, they suggest, is often found not in certainty, but in staying present to God and to one another in the midst of uncertainty.

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time,  many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:02.701)
Hello friends, welcome to the podcast, Speaking of Faith. And speaking of faith, you are invited to this podcast to be part of a conversation that's ongoing, and at the end of it to take it, the conversation and make it your own, to share the ability to talk with one another about our faith with others. My name is Dee Dee Duncan-Probee. I am the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. I'm joined by Adam Eichelberger, who is our Director of Communications.

And we are going to talk about peace today. What do we mean by peace? How do we find peace? What does peace mean in our lives and in our world? A lot of times, and especially right now, we talk about peace in the Middle East as the cessation of a war. We talk about peace being tranquility or harmony. There's a lot of ways that people discuss peace. But I wonder sometimes if often the way we talk about peace is the absence of something.

the absence of conflict, the absence of grief, the absence of strife or war or violence. And surely and certainly that is a definition for peace is that there is not a harm being caused to other people. But I also want to zero in a bit because we've just been through the passion narrative and through Holy Week and we're in the season of Easter and to make note of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus.

that when Jesus comes to the disciple, the first thing Jesus says is, peace be with you. Jesus, this greeting that throughout scripture we find when the angel comes to Mary, the angel Gabriel, peace be with you. This offering of peace, the shepherds in the field, peace be with you. For I bring you good tidings of great joy. This sense of welcome, of coming in, and actually peace being the presence of.

a joining with a relational aspect of our lives. I don't know if you've ever had an opportunity. know years ago I had a surgery and I was very anxious about it. And a friend from another part of the country flew in, unbeknownst to me and came to see me at the hospital. And when this friend walked in, I felt such an overwhelming sense of peace. was this everything was fine and

Bishop DeDe (02:24.659)
nothing had changed about the circumstances of my life. I still was in recovery, the surgery was still looming, but my friend coming into that room brought peace to me. It felt very similar to those moments where someone comes into our lives and we feel that peace has joined with us. And so I wonder for you listener, how is peace manifest in your life?

either by someone coming to you, by you doing something. And I want to highlight something here that when we usually talk about peace, and especially in this time with war, we're talking about the end of something and the beginning of the next thing. But I want to really work with this a bit and talk with it in a deeper way. Because I think especially when we look at our world where we're isolated, divided, where there's so much acrimony, where there's so much fighting and so much

bitterness. What if peace in the external world is driven by the peace in our internal life, that it starts with our internal journey within ourselves. And so we have to ask ourselves, how much are we at peace? Right now, in your life and your living, do you feel a peacefulness within you? Regardless of circumstance, regardless of what's happening outside?

externally, are we feeling peaceful? Or do we feel ranker? I keep hearing people say things like, well, I just don't know if I'm enough for this moment, or I just don't know if I can handle this, or I just don't know this sense of lack of isolation of brokenness of division. And so when we are feeling that way internally, it is not surprising that externally, our world will reflect acrimony and division and isolation.

We kind of keep digging as it were. This division between us, we just keep dividing more and more and more. I was talking with a group the other day, not in the diocese, so I just want to highlight that this isn't meant to shame anyone. I was talking with a group and two people who were on the same side of what we would call the partisan spectrum were talking. And one of them said, well, you and I have always agreed, but now we don't.

Bishop DeDe (04:46.603)
And I thought, isn't that interesting that even with people where we may have a like minded understanding, we're dividing, dividing, dividing. And so in this podcast, I really want to talk about peace within us. The peace, the greeting of Jesus, peace be with you. What does it mean to have peace be with us? Right away, I think of the difference that Henry Nguyen or Henri Nguyen, however you want to pronounce his name, says about that.

you know, this, the way in which we live our lives and how the P that we are beings and not human doings. And we so often slip into doing, we want to fix everything. We want to make everything right. We want to, we want tranquility to be nothingness. And there's a writer, I should have looked it up before the podcast, but listener, you'll know. And so you can send this in, in the comments who talks about don't

have dead people goals, which we often do. We don't want stress. We just want to not have anything to do. We want all of the acrimony. We kind of want nothingness because we're so fatigued by all the doingness. And so in this podcast to talk about peace, I wonder where you and I are invited to stop all the doing and to instead welcome the being.

to be present to Jesus being with us, that there's nothing you can do. There's no need or requirement on you. Jesus is with you, being with you in this moment. And so what does that mean to you and for you? And how might that change your life? And for those who are having trouble sleeping or are feeling very much the lack of things,

our need for Jesus is to be with Jesus and know that there's something greater. And so what does it mean still, again, I continue to ask the question, to be about peace. What is it that peace is to you? And so Adam, I'm going to invite you into this conversation. How when we talk about peace, and especially getting into that lack of and being with

Bishop DeDe (07:03.491)
I just think that's a really helpful place for us to begin to think about the apostles in the upper room and Jesus coming to them. And keep in mind, I should say this, the disciples in the upper room are grieving, they're terrified, they're lost, the room is locked for fear of the Jews, the terror that they're feeling. And so Jesus coming and saying, I'm bringing you peace. So jump in here, Adam, and how does this speak to your heart right now?

Adam Eichelberger (07:35.289)
Well, I think that first off, one of the things that I always struggle with is mightily when we talk about peace, especially in the context of our Bible and in the context of Christianity, because it always kind of feels trite to me. When someone's talking to me about like peace, I heard a Deacon friend of mine say a long time ago in my Catholic days that the most common phrase or bidding within scripture is peace be with you or some sort of

Bishop DeDe (07:40.439)
Yes.

Bishop DeDe (07:49.538)
Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (08:04.462)
permutation of that, which I think is great. It's a comfort in one sense. And for me, it also, it's kind of like, come on, man. Like, I don't know if you, any of you listeners relate to this, but I feel like sometimes like, I don't have time for peace. I don't have time for that. And it's interesting as you were talking, uh, it made me mindful of the, and I, friends, I'm not going to try and claim to be a linguistics expert or a scriptural scholar by any means. Uh, but I was reminding,

Bishop DeDe (08:17.836)
Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (08:33.174)
It reminded me of that word shalom in Hebrew, which oftentimes is translated into peace. But it also, like you talked about Bishop Deedee, refers to a like wholeness or soundness or completeness. And to me, that feels like something I can aspire to. It doesn't feel like a dead person goal. I think that was Susan Cain who said that, but you guys can correct me if I was wrong about that. But...

Bishop DeDe (08:36.579)
That's right.

Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (08:56.529)
yeah, that probably is right. Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (09:01.174)
The first thing I wanted to ask when it comes to peace, because this is such a pivotal part of who we are as human beings, regardless of where you are in a relationship with how we as Christians have come to understand God, I think though, we hear this calling, this bidding from Jesus in scripture a lot.

which is blessed are the peacemakers. This is something that's really important. You see it everywhere. You see it on signs. You see people using it from the pulpit and in the pew. How do we, my first question Bishop is how do we, as people living our lives the best we can in this moment, in this time, be peacemakers? Because I feel like that seems like a really overwhelming task because somebody like me,

Bishop DeDe (09:47.339)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (09:49.239)
I think like, okay, well, I'm not doing enough because I'm not in a war torn area. I'm not in an area of conflict helping with relief, but how do we in our own ways start fostering peace outwardly? And then maybe also how do we start fostering that peace that you were talking about inwardly? I know that's kind of two questions and it's big ones listeners, but how do we start doing that in our own context where we're at?

Bishop DeDe (09:53.581)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (10:06.979)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (10:12.683)
It's so well, I think that is the central question that you've asked, because really, I'm going to go back to it starts with our interiority. Our external is a reflection of our internal. And so if internally we're all anxious and churned up, then no matter how much we try to not worry and be happy, which is I think when you first started talking, I thought that's often what people look at peace is like, don't worry, be happy. God's got this. God's in control.

Don't doubt, don't fear. Those are not Christian values. just want to go talk about controversial, write in, yes, put your comments and then you can, I'll get some comments on that one. Those are not actually Christian values because really what sets us, our plumb line is Jesus. And a lot of people say, Jesus was perfect. How can I attain to that? That's not what I mean. I mean, when we look at Jesus, Jesus is

if we're, if our Christology is this way is our perfection. He is the, the high bar. So when I say plumb line, I don't mean it by like low and high or some stay with me on the metaphor, but he is the standard bearer. And so in the Garnagas Seminary, which I think we really need to talk about all year long, Jesus doesn't sound very peaceful. In fact, he sounds very much like he's having a sleepless night, like he's up stewing and

praying and trying to seek God, but also churning and feeling isolated from those who have traveled with him, isolated from his friends, isolated from his community. Why can't you stay up? You keep falling asleep. You can't even stay with me. If it be your will, let this cup pasture me. All that we know about the Garden of Gethsemane is this dark night of the soul, as St. John would say, of Chrysostom, or St. John the Cross.

So for us, we can know that those, that's a holy journey. So peace doesn't mean a lack of journey or a lack of sleepless nights. Peace might mean.

Bishop DeDe (12:23.229)
centering in, in the midst of those and saying rather than fight the sleepless night or rather than fight, fight, fight that we try to not worry and be happy. What if we were to just feel how this moment feels and to be at peace with that, that peace being in this moment, feeling what we feel and recognizing it as the truth of where we are. And so when we're feeling all turned up or like we should perform or do things,

to stop for a minute and center ourselves. And even if we don't feel, and especially if we don't feel Jesus with us, to acknowledge that to God and say, know, God, I am anxious, I am grieving, I am lost. I don't even know where you are. And if it be your will, let this cut past from me. Right in that moment, we're right with Jesus then. And so we can be assured that that's not a negative space. That's actually,

the path to the holiest place. So we first acknowledge the truth of what is happening for us. And then we turn it over to God in a good way, not like a, I'm just gonna have amnesia and forget that there's this thing, or I'm gonna not do anything about it and pretend it's gonna go away. But rather, when we feel our anxiety start to rise, we settle again and say, okay, I can do nothing to fix this.

This is in God's hands now. And so I will, to use the overused and sometimes trite, I will do the right, best, next thing. I will call a friend. I will reach out. In those moments, it's so essential that we recognize our need for community in those isolation moments. And it can sound like we're doing nothing about all the big things you've just said, all the, war, the turbulence and the racism and the dehumanization that's so prevalent in our world.

But when we start from a place of centeredness with God, which is kind of what I'm replacing the word peace with a little bit here, and those of you who are scholars, we can natter on about the meaning of words, but to start from a place of being, this is the truth of where I am right now, I'm gonna give this over to God. And then I'm gonna share that with other people. We can't offer to someone something that we do not have.

Bishop DeDe (14:49.205)
If we don't have peace, we can't be peace bearers. If we don't experience love, you know, love your neighbors yourself is a reciprocal truth. If we can't love ourselves, we can't love our neighbor. And if we aren't loving our neighbor, then we're not loving ourselves. These are truisms and they're relational truisms. I think peace is in many ways in what we're talking about is like that. So we start with our peace with our own being. And then we look around and say, where can I offer this?

being peace to the people around me in my life. And then where in my world can I offer that being peace? Most of us, I'm pretty sure most of the listeners here, do not have the authority or power to change, let's pick a huge thing, what's happening in Iran. We can't stop that.

But we can slow our role, we can be at peace and we can invite others to be praying for, to invite others to be looking for ways of giving money or having conversations or engaging people in learning and having a better understanding. The pandemic of isolation right now is so hindering our ability to be peacemakers.

because we're having trouble even talking with each other about the most basic of things. And so building up in our lives the capacity within us to be true and find that peaceful place and then to offer that to the friends and people around us. And little by little that becomes a movement, know, one becomes two becomes four becomes eight. All of us together embodying being

what we want to see in the world. And so when we're at the school lunch cafeteria or at work or we're at the shop and somebody's all anxious and angry and bitter, to have a different response to it. Instead of fighting fire with fire, we face fire with forgiveness or we face fire with centeredness. And that's how I think we go about it.

Bishop DeDe (17:06.133)
And then in that part of us that I can hear it and I can hear it listener in your head. Well, that's not enough because look at how much this world is suffering. Well, your circle of influence is your circle of influence. And so in that circle of influence to do your part in embodying peace and then to invite others to embody it with you, to look for ways of building up community.

reciprocity and generosity, which is what we'll be talking about on May 2nd, but especially to be building up that sense of community as God's people. So that's how I would answer that question. But listener, think about how you would answer it. How do we find our center in the middle of the storm? And I think we go to scripture and see Peter, Jesus walking on the water, this greeting, peace be with you, settle. This is where you are, settle.

Remember who you are, remember who God is, and let's start again.

Adam Eichelberger (18:10.477)
yeah, absolutely. And I think the first thing I thought about as I mean, as we should, as we bring Jesus into this conversation, it made me mindful of in the gospel of Matthew, where he talks about, perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect. And this feeling of when we talk about peace, when we talk about striving for that centeredness, that wholeness, that peace, that it kind of ring that scripture kind of rings in my ears. And again, it starts putting that pressure on me of like, I gotta be

Bishop DeDe (18:24.995)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (18:39.887)
Perfect and I think it'd be really helpful for us as we are unpacking what it means to seek peace to be a peacemaker to kind of demystify that concept of being perfect the way that we on I think when we hear that word coming out of Jesus's mouth we're like, boy, like I can't I don't have the ability to be perfect and we look at the things the miraculous things that Jesus is does that Jesus does during his life on earth

Bishop DeDe (18:51.053)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (19:07.885)
And we're like, I'm not raising the dead. I'm not multiplying fishes and loaves. I don't know how to be perfect. And it leans a little bit back into not to get too Bible nerdy, but I am a bit of a Bible nerd, in the. Yeah, but in the Greek, means being spiritually mature. means love. means completeness, like you talked about, not flawless. So as.

Bishop DeDe (19:20.739)
Well, we're here to talk about faith, all of us are, so go ahead.

Bishop DeDe (19:34.391)
Well, think we should look at perfect. I mean, I would unpack that word perfect and say it means wholeness, to be who you are. Finding peace doesn't mean you're gonna be taller, smarter, thinner, faster, stronger. It means you're gonna be whole as you are, and you're gonna make use of your skills and talents, and you're going to make use of your weaknesses as opportunities for God to be praised. And so it's not about perfect.

Adam Eichelberger (19:39.011)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bishop DeDe (20:04.013)
Perfection in our that is our humanistic Perfectionism is a sin. I mean we need to name that in this conversation Perfectionism is a sin It means that we are suddenly thinking we're God and that we have the capacity to be sinless That if we just focused a little harder we wouldn't sin and that is not what the gospel teaches That's not a scriptural belief

It is not about concentrating more. It is about wholeness. Now there are things we need to do. This isn't anything goes either. those of you who are wanting to kind of pendulum back and forth, you know, substance use disorder, not lying, being generous and not greedy. There are choices we make that lead us to wholeness and there are choices we make that lead us to brokenness. But perfection is not about that.

that while I was yet a sinner, Jesus died. God is not surprised we're imperfect. We are, God's not. mean, think of the last time you really made a big mistake and all you could keep thinking was, I can't believe I did this. I can't believe I did this. I don't think God for a minute is going, really? I can't believe that she did that. I think God's going, yep, right on cue. You know, just what we expect. Of course you're not. Of course you're not perfect. That's not on your playlist.

Adam Eichelberger (21:25.654)
Yep, yep.

Bishop DeDe (21:30.945)
but you're whole. And wholeness is honesty, authenticity. Wholeness is, it really demands courage. My prayer that I say before I preach every time is give us ears to hear what you're saying to us and the courage to follow. It takes courage to follow Jesus. And what I mean by courage isn't, it does take that sometimes too to step out in faith.

But I'm talking about the courage within us to tell ourselves the truth. To say, you know that thing that I haven't wanted to admit about myself? It's time for me to come clean to myself. God already knows it's there. God already knows we're selfish. God already knows we're greedy or whatever the sin is. Sin is where we live, it's where we're from.

But we need to tell ourselves the truth and say, you know, I just can't handle this right now. This is more than I can bear. And another trope I love to talk about in terms of sin is the one God never gives you more than you can handle. That is just patently not true. In fact, really faith is knowing that we can't handle life without God, that we're not really up to it. And to recognize that vulnerability and that fragility.

But what we do have is all that we need to be honest with ourselves and to be engaged with God and allow God to be God. And so it changes our posture. So when Jesus comes to the apostles and they're terrified and thinking, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Jesus comes and says, believe. And we tend to hear through this humanistic lens where Jesus says, you you see and believe, but blessed are those who do not see.

We see it referentially like Jesus is saying to Thomas particularly, but notice he's talking to all the apostles, not just Thomas. So we have to correct that thinking in our head. We think he's kind of casting some shade there, but what he's actually doing is saying, look, there's going to be a time when you're going to have to believe and you can't touch my hands and my side. That belief is now allowing our relationship to be not.

Bishop DeDe (23:45.283)
confined to the mortal realm. That we don't have to see Jesus to believe Jesus. We don't have to feel hope to know that hope is. And we don't have to feel peaceful to be peaceful. Because peaceful is an honest engagement with God that's a wholeness. And hopefully in that space when we say God, I can't handle this. This is too much for me. I need you and I'm just gonna let go of being.

capable, you know, all the things we, the pressure you put on ourselves to be perfect, the pressure we put on ourselves to be enough for every moment. I'm going to acknowledge that.

This is the truth of who I am. And once we acknowledge that, then we make the next right step. I mean, it's so important to recognize it with Alcoholics Anonymous or other substance use groups. The first step is saying, you know what? I have a problem. We can't heal unless we acknowledge truth. You have to see truth to heal it and engage with it. So peace always begins with truth-telling. Peace begins with right thinking.

That's what orthodoxy literally means, is right thinking. Peace begins with a wholeness and right relationship with God that is not bound, thank goodness, hallelujah be praised, by circumstance. Jesus in the garden, us in the hospital room, in our grief, that our ability to know peace is not based on our understanding, but as scripture would tell us, is beyond our comprehension.

That it's peace that God brings to us in knowing that God is God, that we are not, and that God has got this. That the truth of our life is that we rest in the grace of God. That the truth of our life is that first and foremost, we start in that interiority of being with God. And letting go of all those things we know, and as the mystic and anonymous said in the Middle Ages, to unknow all of that.

Bishop DeDe (25:51.585)
so that we may know God. And then, and only then, can we be a peace bearer to the world. Because then we have something to bear. Often we try to be peace bearers when we don't have any clue what peace is. We're all anxious, we're caught up, and we're trying to tell people, it's gonna be all right, it's gonna be all right. But you can feel that we're like, you know, and we wanna be peace bearers by making it a certain way. What if God's doing something we can't see?

and to yield to it, to be at peace with it. And then to invite others in, that's why I say a lot of the time, I think humility and curiosity need to make a comeback because I think humility and curiosity are essential parts of being peaceful. Because when we're curious and say, Lord, I don't know how you're gonna fix this. I really don't, I can't see a way out of this.

Bishop DeDe (26:46.325)
Okay, so I'm just gonna love the next person. And I'm just gonna wait until I see what you're calling me to do. And I'm gonna wait on the Lord. And I'm going to take steps. I'm gonna do both and. It's a really high level to begin to learn that our peacefulness is not situational dependent. We still feel grief and yet can be at peace. We still are broken and yet are made whole. Paul is our, we always talk about cult.

Paul, St. Paul, with as both and, because you we've already been changed but not yet changed, but this is also where we are as humans on this journey with God, that we attain but at the same time know that we're not there yet.

Adam Eichelberger (27:31.724)
I agree a lot. I agree so much with all of that. The last thing I kind of wanted to, I wanted to ask of you, Bishop, as we kind of wind down our time this episode, we got a great question that came in just the other day from a listener. And it's so funny because when you and I were planning out this episode, this question had not yet been asked, but in the true humor of the Holy Spirit, we received, exactly, we received a question from a listener.

Bishop DeDe (27:50.723)
Okay.

Bishop DeDe (27:56.001)
The spirits at work, man.

Adam Eichelberger (28:01.283)
I'm assuming it's, I'm going to say Dinah or Dina, D-I-N-A, and if potentially it was Diana, I apologize. I'm just reading the question that you submitted, who is a listener from Tennessee. And this one resonated with me a little bit because as you know, Bishop, and I've shared a little bit on this podcast, am a, I guess you could call it a convert to the Episcopal Church. was born and raised Roman Catholic, and I am now going to be received into the Episcopal Church.

And Dinah has similar experience to me, born and raised in the Roman Catholic Church. And I'm going to summarize your question a little bit. Referenced a lot of the spiritual practices that go into things in a Roman Catholic faith, like things like praying the rosary, Eucharistic adoration. There's these spiritual exercises that she talks about that she found were a good tool for, and here's the connection, finding peace.

Bishop DeDe (28:49.027)
Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (28:59.245)
because obviously our peace, there are physical components of it. There are the emotional and mental components of it, but it absolutely, there is a spiritual component to us finding peace and being a peacemaker. And she wanted to ask you Bishop, and again, we've talked about this. We make this disclaimer frequently on the podcast that this is not an advice show, but sometimes we do ask Bishop for her perspective or her advice. Dina wants to know, are there any Episcopal

Bishop DeDe (28:59.287)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (29:07.639)
That's right.

Bishop DeDe (29:18.242)
Mm.

Adam Eichelberger (29:27.359)
spiritual practices that you find helpful when it comes to finding peace.

Bishop DeDe (29:33.943)
Great question, great question. The answer is yes. And you know, one of the, with the Reformation, talk about nerding out just a minute. With the Reformation, one of the things that we lost were a lot of these acts of piety or practices, praying the rosary or daily offices or things like that. I find it really important and helpful in my own spiritual life.

to have a prayer time every day and throughout the day, that there are moments that I pay attention to seeking God and reconnecting with God so that I can minister from a peaceful space of my own. We've talked about the prayer where you breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly with a phrase, praying on a breath and kind of re-centering yourself, centering prayer. One day a week, I actually have a sit of

I would do it more often. Those of you who are like one day a week, I have a busy schedule. But when I have time, I love to sit and have contemplative prayer and clear my mind. Walking in the woods, you know, being in nature, sitting with my dogs and just paying like really zeroing in on them. We often pet our dogs and go on with our day, but to sit and kind of hang out with them and sort of listen to them, if you will. I find it really centering because of their

They're so relational, know, and they're so they look at you and they're so present. Those are just a few ways. mean, there's the I'm not saying the obvious ones like, you Eucharistic worship on Sundays or I do read the daily office. And if you haven't, there's an app that suddenly I'm blanking on, but I'm looking it up right now because I think it's a really helpful app. Pray as you go is a Jesuit.

I believe Jesuit who started this and praise you goes a lovely little, you if you're out and away from things and need and want to connect, that's usually really great. And I do love and I do pray the daily office, but those are all very important. And where we probably should take this conversation next time listener is okay. So we're going to start with our interior already and then offer peace to the world. And this is a great leading question. So

Bishop DeDe (31:59.075)
How do we do that? What are some ways that we might engage ourselves and what are some helps that are out there and how might we continue to focus on being peace bearers to the world? So we'll continue to include that in our conversation. I want to welcome you. If you're listening to this podcast and are disagreeing or having thoughts or want to send those in, let's have this be a conversation. And so now I turn it over to you listener to talk with people around you.

and to read some scripture and think in your own life, what does peace mean to you? And how do you access a more peaceful whole feeling within you, connection within you that you then can offer to the world? And so until we talk next time, keep speaking your faith. May you be blessed and be a blessing. And we'll talk soon. Take good care.