Leave Your War at the Door, Please

For your sake, and mine. For your family and mine. For your community, nation, and mine, too.

It’s hard, though. We carry a lot of our environment’s baggage on our backs. It’s why we get home from a 9-to-5 job and chill out, put our feet on the coffee table, and watch a show. Or—what we treasure most—the kids are asleep in their room, the dog is quiet, and we’re in our warm pajamas under the sheets and quilt, ready to dream of… nothing.

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To put away the hubbub of the day, the turmoil in the world—even if only for six hours—until we awaken and the familiar threats of war, atrocities, hunger, disease, murders, robberies, and more hit us through the radio, TV, or even our phones.

Yes, we need a home—at least our home—filled with peace.

Three months ago, I came across a yellow porcelain sign about 5 inches wide and 10 inches long that said, “Enter in peace.” At that moment, a thought touched me: What if my wife and I welcomed everyone to our home with that message at the door?

So, I got a hammer and nail and posted it outside, on our doorpost.

The best part of having done that is that every time I enter through our door, I see it, remember, and step in a little lighter than before.

Peace is obtainable.

Believe it. It is thoroughly depressing and debilitating not to. It’s also disheartening to think there’s nothing we can do to bring peace about—to believe it’s only up to our leaders and what they decide. After all, they must know what they’re doing, right?

Not entirely. In a democracy such as America, our leaders are supposed to represent our wishes—not their own. If we yearn for peace, then we expect them to as well. And that goes for equality, justice, freedom, independence, and fairness. Our history proves that we only attain these realities—these social goods—through hard work, cooperation, consensus, and unified thinking.

The Baha’i Faith, of which I am a longtime member—like all other faiths—teaches that love of God is the highest ideal. Service to humanity is how we express that love. In the words of our leader, ‘Abdu’l-Baha:

“I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness, and content.

“Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.” – Paris Talks, Part One, 6.

We know thoughts lead to action—or can. If our thoughts lead to actions that promote and ensure peace, we’ll have it.

In fact, the Bahs’i Writings are not only confident of this, they say, “Peace is inevitable.” Further, they state that peace and unity are “the ultimate goal of His Faith”—the Faith that a Persian prisoner named Baha’u’llah proclaimed in a little-known garden in 1863.

So I don’t believe that peace is impossible, as too many do. I look at every overthrow of a tyrant, and at peaceful developments the world over. I’ve lived through the transformations of communism since its inception—one proof that nations are choosing to be part of a world community rather than isolated from it. I see the elections of democratic leaders and much more.

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Peace is inevitable. It is the goal of our lifetime, the goal of every lifetime. Peace in your home and mine, which we all want. Peace in our community, in our nation, and in the world.

From an early Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Baha:

“My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight. My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined. This is the home of knowledge: the one who enters it must receive knowledge. This is the home of love: those who come in must learn the lessons of love; thus may they know how to love each other.” —Published in Star of the West, Vol. 9, No. 3.