“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” -Matthew 5:9

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” -John 14:27

What do you think is the goal of American life nowadays? Happiness? Success? Financial security? Just getting through the day?

Here’s my observation: The goal of American life is now to have an agitated mind. Not a peaceful mind; not a joyful mind; not a grateful mind; not a quiet mind, but an agitated mind.

Now an agitated mind, being restless, constantly seeks more. An agitated mind, being constantly anxious, often seeks to throw off its anxiety by attacking others. An agitated mind is a generally unhappy mind, and it seeks happiness on agitation’s terms, primarily through competition, shows of force, violence, conquest, and by inflicting suffering upon others.

An agitated mind weaponizes compassion and reserves sympathy for “some,” not all, as a pretext to show no mercy to others. For an agitated mind divides, and cannot see past the dualities of us and them; enemy and friend; winner and loser.

An agitated mind seeks rest through consumption and acquisition, which offers a lull in agitation the way a baby bottle offers a lull to a screeching infant.

An agitated mind is easily directed, easily swayed, easily influenced, easily manipulated and controlled. Does any of this ring true … to you?

Mental agitation is indeed the enemy of both internal and external peace, yet it seems to me that we are living in a culture which intentionally is creating agitation in our individual and collective minds. So how can someone not live with an agitated mind in this culture? Seeing all that is so wrong; seeing so much in the world that needs to be corrected; seeing all the injustice, the suffering, and the cruelty, is it possible — or even desirable — to live without an agitated mind?

I am convinced that it is very difficult to live without an agitated mind in our day and age, and so I think what we must decide if our “sympathetic vibration” with the agitation all around us is going to help us, and our culture and world, or not. Put in another way, is the only way we can respond to the world’s woes and offer change and healing and justice is to become agitated ourselves? Is this the only way we can summon the “mojo” to work for change?

That is a question we all have to answer for ourselves. I do think of Martin Luther King Jr. who experienced the agitation of his culture expressed through segregation and racism. His response was NOT to meet agitation with agitation, but rather to meet agitation with a centered peace and nonviolent resistance which came from a place of inner resolve, and some sense of inner peace.

Now maybe he’s the exception to the rule of meeting agitation with agitation, but at least his example offers an alternative understanding of what it takes to change the world, versus becoming agitated ourselves and then borrowing from the playbook of other agitated minds, rather than the playbook of God revealed through Jesus Christ.

Now, it’s true: According to the Gospels, even Jesus himself got agitated. He got angry with the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites. He once got agitated with a fig tree and cursed it! And his big display of agitation was in the temple when he overturned tables and drove out the money changers with a whip!

So apparently Jesus got agitated from time to time. But what did his agitation accomplish? The scribes and Pharisees only got more agitated by his agitation. The poor fig tree just wilted and didn’t bear fruit ever again, a waste of a good fig tree. And some scholars argue that it was Jesus’ agitation with the temple moneychangers and merchants which led to his execution, as the authorities didn’t want his agitation to be “contagious” and threaten their power.

Jesus’ agitation seems natural, but it had no positive effects in the long run. And that is the problem with agitation. So often it doesn’t solve problems, it only agitates them; escalates them. And that is what we seeing all around us now.

So when Jesus says: “Blessed are the peacemakers,” when he says: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you,” he is reminding us that there is a way to live in this agitated world of ours which will not add to the agitation … and that is the way of a peaceful mind and heart. And that begins with a primary decision: Will I choose to pursue peace over agitation?

That is the first step. We must all make up our minds about trying to live in peace, or in agitation. And make up our minds we must, because not to make up our minds means we give our minds over to the culture with its endless thirst for agitation; it’s endless inciting of our minds!

And if we see this, and decide that the agitation of our minds brings no real benefit or blessing to us or to the culture, then we have to decide what we are going to do about it.

Maybe that means we have to put down our smartphones. Maybe that means we have to quit endlessly gawking at the news, get off social media, and quit allowing our brains to be entrained by other agitated minds. Maybe it is acknowledging that our minds are not peaceful, and so we have to do our part to make them peaceful through prayer, through meditation, through immersion in nature, and through peaceful pursuits. We have much we can do to retrain ourselves to live with a more peaceful mind!

And when the agitation gets the best of us, then we need to ask for help from the God of Peace. I believe this is the greatest key to living with less agitation: trusting in, and devoting ourselves to the God of Peace, who truly wants us to dwell in God’s peace.

The power of God’s peace is seen in the power of Jesus the Christ when he could overcome his human agitation and offer peace and forgiveness even to his enemies; when he could offer peace and forgiveness to his own disciples who denied and abandoned him; when he could say “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” Jesus, the Prince of Peace, shows us the power of God’s peace!

It is amazing to consider that we can share in the peace-filled mind of God, if this is what we wish with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But this takes practice, dedication, and desire. We must want to go beyond our agitated minds. We must want the peace that passes all human understanding. We must want new life; not the life of the crowd, not the life of the culture, not the life of Facebook or X or MSNBC or Fox News or any other human product intentionally engineered to keep our minds agitated, in turmoil, despairing, angry, and even violent.

What is clear to me is this: WE are responsible for the contents of our minds. We are responsible for the choices of how we will direct our lives, and fill our minds. Will we choose agitation? Or will we choose peace?

God is waiting and wanting to show us the way to a peaceful mind and heart! But we must want peace more than agitation. Will we choose the peace that passes all human understanding? Will we join the peacemakers of our species, whom the Prince of Peace called children of God?

For the sake of our peace and the world’s peace, let us choose peace!

Rev. Craig Blaufuss is the pastor at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Webster City. This column is the sixth in a series from the Webster City Ministerial Association.