Recently, being in something of an “ornery” state of mind induced by having been forced to think, I attempted to foist my misery off on everyone with whom I held any appreciable conversation and a few upon whom I literally forced myself. My misery of thought came in my vain attempt to define what the mind is. I consulted page after page of definition that told me next to nothing. Definitions often are just so much jibber that fails completely to define. Without exception, every person answered my question, “What is the mind?” by the same words, “What is the mind?” No one answered me really, although a few did try, heroically.

Nothing captivates the minds of men so quickly as a suggestion that someone has a formula for peace of mind. The reason is, of course, that most people do not have this peace. People flounder in uncertainties, fume in frustration, work themselves into ulcers, develop asthma, have heart attacks, go into spasms, have nervous breakdowns and many die. Now all ulcers, asthma etc. are not caused by nervous frustration but there is no denying the fact that a great deal of physical sickness does stem from the primary cause of frustration and uncertainty.

Joshua Loth Liebman, as a young man, wrote what he considered the “goods” of life and took his list to a wise elder who read the list, “health, love, beauty, talent, power, riches, fame.” The old man looked at the list and, after complimenting him said, “You have omitted the most important element of all. You have forgotten the one ingredient lacking which each possession becomes a hideous torment, and your list as a whole an intolerable burden.” The old man crossed out the entire list and wrote beneath, what he considered the most important of all and wrote the simple words, “Peace of Mind.” Later Mr. Liebman wrote the book, Peace of Mind, that sold upwards of one and one half million copies.

This experience could be repeated by the score but not many have tried to help this frustrated race of human beings by writing books. A few have, and continue to make rich contributions to life. However, no matter what brilliance and what fine help is given, man is unable to instruct other men until they reach for themselves, that magic experience of peace of mind. Man is so constituted that when one disturbance passes, another arises. It will always be this way and no way can be devised to stop it. This assumes, of course the intention and will of man to keep on living.

Now if you are content to seek peace on the human level, I highly recommend the book mentioned and many others that will give positive help and astute direction. But if you seek peace on the divine level, the peace the Bible speaks so much about, then I have a great deal more to say.

Let us consider the mind that so many people want “peace of”: What is it? It is amazing that poor definitions are given by so many brilliant people. Consider the definitions, “memory, recollection, power of remembering; intention, purpose, desire; the perceptive and thinking part of consciousness.” Webster has the most of a large page of definition and after you have studied them all you are still “at sea” trying to explain the mental process that we can call the mind. May we consider another definition, “the seat of reflective consciousness” but I can hardly accept that because the mind functions, too often I fear, without reflection.

I have no definition either but let me try to put into language that I can understand, what the mind is. The mind is a computer into which has been fed thousands of programs. The mind is capable of accepting an unlimited number of such programs. It is the most complex, wonderful thing! But unlike the mechanical computer that can only bring answers preconditioned by what has been programmed, the human mind can deduct, put together facts, ideas, concepts and bring forth answers that a computer would be incapable of bringing. And more than that, the human mind can be influenced by God; His Word, His Spirit and bring forth decisions that leave the computer for what it is, a mechanical device. The ancient prophet and the few prophets of the day, are they who are sensitive enough to the Spirit of God that they can be directed by God in a way that is not dependent upon systems or programs.

BUT BE CAREFUL: For the most part, we respond according to what we have been programmed for. Preconditioned responses are a fact not a theory. But the preconditioned response does not HAVE to be forthcoming. MAN HAS THE POWER WITHIN HIMSELF TO GO AGAINST THE OUTSIDE FORCES THAT WOULD PROGRAM AND DIRECT HIM. Man does not have to be a puppet manipulated by many strings. Man has the capacity to break out of it and be that man, “created in God’s image” with power to act contrary to past programming.

How then does man have peace in this complex, wonderful thing we call the mind? How does he keep that mind from getting fouled up? How does he know when he is thinking something right or thinking foolishly? Indeed, how can he be sure when he just allows his mind to slip into neutral and allows life to drift with the tides?

Animals can be trained (programmed), preconditioned to respond in a predetermined way to a given stimulus or situation. Dogs are trained not to eat and will not, even though they are very hungry and food is available to them. Dogs have been known to stand watch and die but would not break the way they were programmed (trained). Man can also be trained. Trained to respond in a predetermined way to a given situation. Training certainly is not bad. Children must be trained. Every successful person must accept disciplines, either self-imposed or imposed by others. BUT MAN, WITH THE POWER OF HIS MIND IS CAPABLE OF MAKING DECISIONS ON HIS OWN. He is capable of knowing when the preconditioning has gone awry; that response should no longer be what we were conditioned for. Man can change the pattern. MAN’S MIND CAN BE CHANGED AND MAN HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE HIS OWN MIND. True, it is often painful and is done with great fear and much trembling but old patterns CAN be changed if man can see a better way. He does not HAVE to respond according to the old pattern. This ability of the mind lifts him high above the animal level. Job said to his “friends” who accused him so unmercifully, “I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.” Job’s friends were responding according to their preconditioning. Job had the same preconditioning as they but Job was faced with the problem of sickness, losses and loneliness. Job broke out of the box. Job broke the chains that bound him. Job declared in chapter 13:2, “What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior to you.” Job’s friends acted as well programmed people were supposed to act. They held to their past teaching. They did not change even though their friend was the one afflicted and deprived. Unswervingly they held to the programming of their minds. Even Job’s wife was the same. No love for her husband changed her mind! She, in derision and accusation suggested that Job, “curse God and die.” But Job proved that man is not a machine. Man has the power to rise to undreamed heights. Job said, “God knows that I have not sinned … I have kept mine integrity … though after the skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God …” Maybe you would like to assume that Job had a conditioning that his friends did not have. The record will not bear that out. Job said, “what ye know, the same do I know also.” But Job found a new dimension in spiritual life. He had peace in spite of sorrow, loss, death, sickness and out of this deep peace with God came peace of mind. He could rest his case with God and fear not. Yea verily! Job had more peace of mind then they who came to comfort him.

Peace of mind is not found in the abundance of knowledge. The facts are that an abundance of knowledge, without the skill to handle it, can bring great uncertainty and frustration.

What can man do for himself in this quest for peace of mind? Intellectualism cannot bring it because many of the world’s “intellectuals” have been frustrated people. They never found the “Holy Grail’” of peace.

Marcus Aurelius, ancient philosopher and sage said, “Man must be arched and buttressed from within else the temple wavers to the dust.” How could the architect or the builder rest if they knew they erected a building to house many people but it was not arched and buttressed from within? If the foundations were insecure, the columns inferior, the beams rotten or too small? Nor can you, or I have peace of mind until we are arched and buttressed from within. No man can have peace of mind until he is at peace with his creator and with all men everywhere. Communism fears democracy and democracy, when weak, fears communism so wars are fought on far flung battle fields. The white man fears the black and the black man fears the white and these fears spawn a hatred that erupts on the streets of America. We are not arched and buttressed from within. We are trying to build our arches and buttresses as a protection against attack and in so doing have neglected to build ourselves. We are falling, not because of the attacks of enemy forces. We are falling because the buildings of our personal lives are crumbling.

Because I desire peace of mind I build a life that is arched and buttressed from within and I have no fear of that which may attack from without. It is a truism, “there can be no peace of mind until man knows it well within himself.” No man can know peace until he is at peace with God and with all men, everywhere. Intelligence bids me that I cannot afford to hate. Hatred robs me of peace. I cannot afford jealousy, envy, ill will, grudge or any such thing because they are the robbers of the mind and soul of that blessed peace we strive to know. The guiding text of my life, both to obtain and keep peace of mind is Philippians 4:8. I urge people to memorize it and make it a guide for their own life. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Do you want peace of mind? Prove it by practicing what Divinity directs. Make Philippians 4:8 a guide for your life. It never fails! Memorize it, if you need to. Correct your thoughts; reject the impure, the dishonest, the untrue and the unproven that might not be true; refusethe unlovely and denounce the bad reports that are unproven and often badly stained or outright untruths. People who say they want peace of mind but refuse the disciplines necessary to obtain it are like those who pray, “lead us not into temptation” and then walk boldly into the face of evil.

So, the mind is a delicate and complex mechanism and yet rugged enough to assimilate the shocks and abuses of sorrow, disappointment, bereavement and disillusionment. But man needs an inner equilibrium, a spiritual stability. Man needs peace of mind but that peace cannot come until man is at peace with God and “so far as lieth in me” at peace with all men. Oh there will be stormy seasons when peace is threatened but right thinking, backed by righteous living insures that peace fought for and won.

Do you think the person who refuses to speak to another is at peace? Do you think the person who has wronged another, even though his evil is not disclosed, do you think such a person knows peace? No, my friend, we will all agree that peace of mind cannot exist where there is a war raging within. Alas! so many cry for peace of mind but refuse to do the one thing that will bring it! How then can man find peace of mind? First of all, he must have a beginning.

The Philosopher may urge you to THINK your way to peace. Some segment of psychiatry may urge that you satisfy the demands of the flesh, or at least try to. Or perhaps a psychiatrist will try to help you fix the blame for your distresses on someone, perhaps your parents; just anyone because in fixing blame upon someone else it is supposed that responsibility for your actions is removed and you no longer have those devastating feelings of guilt. But this is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think? Sooner or later we must face life more realistically. Maybe someone or something or circumstance has reconditioned us and caused us to be restless because of inner conflicts. Maybe someone is responsible but MAN HAS THE POWER TO RISE ABOVE WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE. Man must face himself more realistically and then with the mind to correct his life, he can. Often it helps to understand, a little, of why I am distressed but merely knowing it, without the will to correct or discipline ourselves may very well drive us more deeply into the shadows.

But man must have a beginning place and I believe, with multiplied millions of others, that God is the proper beginning for any of us. I do not attempt to over-simplify this. It is not an easy road. The Jesus way is “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow.” Carnal minds resist denial and instead of denial of self accepts the position of exalting self. Carnal minds are, for the most part, looking for the easy way and not the way of the cross. Carnal men do not like to follow but race ahead for a leadership that too often they are unqualified to fill. There can be no peace of mind for anyone who has not found refuge for his own soul and there is no continuing refuge for anyone except in God. There can be no peace of mind for he who tries to “play God” in a mad endeavor to hew peace out of confusion.

Only God can take up the tangled strands of life, tune them and bring again the harmonies of heaven that induces peace; peace of mind, soul and spirit. Only God is able to make sense out of an otherwise senseless existence. The profound words of Jesus instruct us to, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” How profound and how misunderstood the words of Jesus, “ye must be born again.” Find life in me, He seemed to say, because “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

When you find this beginning you will then find the road that leads to daily peace. Having found the road, walk it, walk it daily and always; feed the intellect that which will make for the good life and reject all that destroys. BUT DON’T BE MISLEAD! Peace is not a package to take from, day by day, NOT AT ALL! Peace is like the manna which God sent from heaven to feed His people in the time of great need; it fell daily and none could be saved, except for the Sabbath. Peace of mind is like that also. It is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment matter. That peace can be disrupted in a thousand ways. We need to learn to pray with greater understanding, “Give us this day our daily bread.

Disruptions will come. The mind will be disturbed by many things and will constantly be coping with new problems. There are and will always be, times that are perfectly natural to life and to growth when this disturbance of the mind will be like the waters of a beautiful lake being disturbed by a storm. But as the waters shall again be quieted, when the storm passes, so with the mind that continues to think as the guidance text directs, “Whatsoever things are true … honest … just … pure … lovely … good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Even during the troubled times when decisions must be made, problems solved, disappointments handled, frustration dissolved; there can be that underlying peace that enables one to seek answers intelligently, sanely and with the assurance that God will give guidance, strength, wisdom, and if necessary, “My God shall give thee songs in the night.”

Peace of mind is possible. It begins with God. It continues as we make peace with men. Do not allow bitterness, hate, jealousy, envy, guilt or any such peace-killing enemy to invade your mind or spirit. The peace God gives is the “Peace that passeth understanding. “From this stems peace of mind and a good conscience. It is that eternal, perpetual sabbath of the soul. The words of Dale Oldham’s song takes a rich, new dimension to one who seeks and then follows after this blessed peace:

“Dead to every worldly pleasure,
Dead indeed to sin am I;
But alive to Christ my Saviour,
Daily to Him I’m drawing nigh.
Storms in fury beat around me,
Tempests oft my bark assail;
But my pilots name is Jesus,
He will calm the wildest gale.”