The Way of the Warrior: An Ancient Path to Inner Peace

by Erwin Raphael McManus

I have a wildly vivid imagination that is informed by a lifetime of daydreaming. More often than not, I find myself in unexpected places, talking to people I’m fairly certain I have never met in real life but who feel very real to me. Sometimes I’m in the curious situation where my imagination takes the lead and I feel more like an innocent bystander.

The warrior is not ready for battle until they have come to know peace. This is the way of the warrior.

Each of these stories wove a heroic narrative within my soul and reminded me that there is a significant difference between violence and honor, between revenge and courage, between the way of war and the way of the warrior.

it is not God who created humanity to live in violence, but rather it is humanity that chooses violence.

We would have a history of even more wars if God did not exist.

This is not the history of God; this is the history of us. God is tainted by being part of our story, but the story of God is a story of peace. What does the story of peace look like when it’s dropped into the middle of a humanity that knows only conflict and violence? The language of God as a warrior came to exist because he intervened for the defenseless. He heard the cries of a people battling slavery and came to set them free. So yes, it was a declaration of war against injustice, oppression, and inhumanity.

God understands the war that rages within and around us and that he longs to lead us to the end of violence. We are people of war because we are a people at war. All the violence we see in the world is but a small glimpse of the violence that churns in us. This war that rages within us eventually boils over and sets the world on fire.

the only path toward world peace is inner peace.

Our only hope for societal peace is inner peace, and inner peace will not come without a battle.

I have come to know this one truth most certainly: the world within you will create the world around you.

Inner peace does not come by accident, nor by desire. Inner peace is a journey toward self-mastery. The way of the warrior is a discipline of the soul. It is a journey toward enlightenment. And ultimately it is the outcome of a relationship with the Creator of the universe. The world in which Jesus lived never knew peace, yet no matter how hard the powerful tried, they could never steal his peace. It should not surprise us that it was an act of violence that became for us our way to peace. The cross points the way, but we must choose the path. The Bible speaks of darkness and light, reminding us there is a war that rages within us all.

You cannot give up on yourself when God considers you worth the fight. The cross upon which Jesus died will never be known as a symbol of defeat or a declaration of surrender. The cross will be forever remembered, long after time ceases to exist, not just as a declaration of the one who stands victorious but as a promise that in the end war will surrender to peace. It is the way of Jesus that is the ancient path to inner peace. His life is the way of the warrior.

Every war, every conflict, every act of violence exists because our souls rage. Our only hope for peace is to win the battle within. Every war against another is a war that never should have been fought. It should have been won long before. It should have been won from within. This is our first battle. The war to end all wars is the battle for the human heart. This is the war we must win. To know peace is the way of the warrior.

To find your strength you must find your peace, for the path to inner strength is inner peace.

God stepped into human history to fight for us. He did not hope for peace; he fought for peace.

In his death and resurrection, Jesus took upon himself all the violence of the world so he could bring all the world his peace.

Jesus tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”5 With simplicity and wisdom, he cuts between the two things that steal our peace, for the greatest enemies of the peace within are worry and fear.

Worry projects a negative view of the world around us. Worry projects a negative future. Worry is an act of faith. It is a deep-seated belief in worst-case scenarios. Worry is not rooted in reality but does affect our reality.

Our anxiety, our distress, our worry—when stripped to its very essence—is rooted in nothing, or at least in nothing we can control.

We become anxious because we haven’t learned to trust.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.”8 This is an important contrast. First he says to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” but then he says to us, “In this world you will have trouble.” We have no control over the reality that in this world we will have trouble, but we have control over whether we decide to allow our hearts to be troubled. He makes the promise that though there will be trouble in this world, we can take heart, for he has overcome the world. Our worry will steal our peace, and when peace is missing, we find ourselves drowning in anxiety and crumbling under the weight of life’s pressures.

If worry wars against our peace, fear is perhaps an even greater foe. When we live our lives afraid, it creates turmoil and chaos within us. Fear is the enemy of peace. While worry will rob our joy, fear will steal our freedom, for what we fear establishes the boundaries of our freedom. What we fear has mastery over our souls. When we are anxious, we lose our strength. When we are afraid, we lose our courage. When we have found peace, we have both the strength and courage to live the lives we were created to live.

that’s exactly what fear and anxiety do to you: they put you on the sideline watching life happen. I couldn’t control the variables if I got into the roller coaster, so I stayed on solid ground to give me a sense of control.

you do not ultimately have control over your life. Peace does not come because you finally have control over your life; peace comes when you no longer need control. If fear has a direct object, anxiety is fear without an object. We experience anxiety when we feel overwhelmed by life. In order to reduce our anxiety, we often create smaller and smaller boundaries to give us some sense of control over our lives.

The warrior’s strength is their peace. Jesus did not come to conquer kingdoms or nations; he came to conquer hearts and minds. If you are going to walk in the way of Jesus, you must know that you are to enter darkness that desperately needs the light. In describing the path that John the Baptist would prepare for Jesus of Nazareth, these words were spoken about John at his birth by his father, Zechariah: “You will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”9

The path of peace comes only when we’re willing to walk into our own darkness and face our own shadows. We must face the very things that steal our peace from us whether they are born out of our fear or our doubts. The concept of peace is deeply rooted in the history that shaped the world and culture of Jesus’s day. The Hebrew word for “peace” is shalom. The word shalom is layered, complex, and elegant in its nuances. At its most superficial level, shalom is basically used as a form of greeting. In many ways it can be compared with the English word goodbye, which is simply a part of our common language but is rooted in the phrase “God be with you.” Shalom is a greeting with deep implications. It is most commonly translated and understood to mean “peace,” but the peace of shalom is rich in its textures. The word extends beyond meaning “peace” to meaning “harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, and tranquility.”10 To experience shalom is to find wholeness. When we find peace, we are made whole. The ultimate goal of peace is that we not only are made whole within ourselves but also become part of the whole within all of creation. The very concept of shalom assumes that the original intention of God is for all things to be interconnected—that when there is peace, there is relationship and harmony between all things. The clearest evidence that we lack peace is that we all sense a tearing between us, a separation that divides us from God, from our true selves, and...

John the Baptist was chosen to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. His mission was “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”13 The last thing anyone would ever say to describe John the Baptist is that he was compliant or even cooperative. John was a nonconformist in every way. His message was confrontational, and his very nature was forceful and powerful. Yet we are told that even his harsh tone and stark language were chosen for our own good. His purpose was to awaken those living in the darkness of the shadow of death and show that there is light and life available for all of us. It would be easy to see John as a man of war, yet his sole intent was to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Through the most violent instrument of death the world has ever known, Jesus came to be our peace—yes, not to simply bring us peace but to be our peace.

More often than not, when you attempt to become a peacemaker, you become a target.

He called us to choose peace as our power.

Jesus went on to say, “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”15 As if it were not hard enough to choose peace over retaliation, Jesus also wants us to return greed with generosity. It seems that by now we would have learned that violence cannot be ended with violence, but I think few of us have ever realized that only generosity can overcome greed. Many times we feel powerless when someone has taken something from us. It’s easy to feel that the only way to reclaim our power is to take what was lost and even more in return. Yet Jesus calls us to a different way. No one can steal what you freely give away. Live your life with open hands. Give away more than another can take from you. As Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”16

It takes great strength to turn the other cheek.

This is not the way of the weak; this is the way of the warrior. This is a call to rise above our most primal instincts, let go of revenge and retaliation, and not be fooled into believing that anger is a source of power.

It takes people of great strength to show restraint and trust that God will be their protector.

Choose service over obligation, servanthood over slavery. If they force you to work, then confound them with a greater wisdom. Never forget that you are always free to do more.

The way of peace is not a call to passivism. The way of peace is not a call to powerlessness. The way of peace is a call to know one’s power. Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. The Bible tells us he made a whip out of cords, overturned their tables, and drove them out. He would not allow them to leave with the money that they had gained.18

The warrior knows that peace does not come from control but from relinquishing control.

Everything in life that you try to control that is outside your control will steal from you your peace. You must choose to take hold of what you can control and let go of what you cannot. You cannot control your circumstances, but you can control your character. You cannot control the actions of others, but you can control the choices you make. You cannot control the outcome, but you can control the process. The battle for peace requires that you both take control and relinquish control. Peace of mind does not come because you have eliminated uncertainty but because you have clarity about what is important. Peace comes when you stop trying to control the world around you and instead take responsibility for the world within you. Inner peace is interconnected to your confidence in future possibilities. In other words, peace is intimately connected to hope. Peace is lost when you are drowning in worst-case scenarios. Peace of mind is not about certainty but about hope-filled mystery. The warrior has peace of mind because they know that there is always a way to find light, even in the midst of the greatest darkness. They know that there is always hope to be found, even in despair. Peace can exist in the midst of turmoil only if you believe in the beauty of the future. Peace sees the beauty everywhere. When you walk in peace, you are overwhelmed by the wonder of the universe and the beauty of life.

If you’re not honest with yourself, you cannot be honest with anyone else. When we close ourselves off from our inner pain and struggles, we inevitably close ourselves off to everyone in our lives as well.

I am convinced that many people have lost their faith in God because they have confused source with process. Yes, God is the source of all peace, and that source is available to all of us freely. The process, though, requires struggle and resilience and does not come without a cost.

Not only can you know peace, but you can also be at peace. And while the world around you rages, the world within you can know a strange stillness and an unexpected calm.

I stood in the middle of my pain. I stepped into my pain. I walked through my pain. You see, one thing I was certain of was that on the other side of my pain, there awaited my freedom. So many of us see pain as the boundary of our limitations. When we experience pain, that’s when we choose to stop. We have confused knowing peace with becoming prisoners. The way of peace is not without pain. The way of peace comes only by walking through the pain.

This one thing remains true: right behind the battle that has just been fought, another battle lies in wait.

For every war that you’ve bled for and won, there is another war waiting to overtake you. There is no path in this life where you can escape those things that will war against your peace. Even Jesus, the Prince of Peace, knew that his path would lead him to agony and suffering. Even for Jesus, there was no escape from the war that rages within the human spirit. Yet in the most violent moment of his life, when he carried the sins of the world upon himself on the cross amidst brutality, he made the way for us to know peace. This is the way of the warrior—not that we run from our suffering, not that we shrink back from the sacrifices demanded of us, but that in the midst of it, regardless of what rages around us, we are at peace.

It may seem like a small thing, but when you get up in the morning and face your fears, you are participating in the redemption of the universe. When you refuse to allow yourself to be paralyzed by the uncertainty of tomorrow and set forth with courage and faith, you become part of creating a new world—a better world. The peace that your soul longs for is the very peace the world needs. I cannot speak of peace and not speak of Jesus, for it is Jesus alone who leads us to the way of peace.

The warrior does not need to be seen. They are most powerful when they are invisible. It is impossible to defeat an enemy you cannot see or disarm a warrior whose weapon never seems to strike. The warrior knows that lesser opponents depend on swords and bows and arrows, but the weapon of the warrior is their wisdom.

While there are many expressions of wisdom, for our purposes it will be defined as the ability to bring peace. When the warrior is wise, they fight only for peace. The proof of their victory is that they have created a world where what is good and beautiful and true prevails. The fool is the enemy of wisdom. The fool is driven by greed and power and violence. The fool uses their weapons to harm, injure, and destroy. The warrior wields a weapon only to defend, protect, and liberate. The warrior does not wield a weapon; they are a weapon. Their strength does not come from the weapons they hold but from the wisdom that has taken hold of them. The novice believes that their power lies in being seen; the warrior understands they are most powerful when they are unseen. The way of the warrior is not a path toward war but a path toward wisdom. The warrior knows they have not learned everything but that they know everything they need to learn.

You need skill to know how to shoot an arrow straight, but only wisdom can teach you how to never need to shoot it. Wisdom is not the result of having learned enough; it comes when you know there is never enough learning. Wisdom is less like a deep ocean and more like the force of a river. The power of the river is in its ability to adapt to its environment, change its course when necessary, and yet always find its way toward its destiny. The river reminds us that it is not always the straight path that leads us to where we must go. The meandering of a river might cause you to think that it has lost its intention, yet the river, as wide as it may bend and as often as it may change its course, always moves forward toward its intended destination. The warrior is like a river, with fluid and adaptive moves. The warrior is not rigid or unchanging. The warrior is not like a stone that cannot be broken but like water that even when cut in two cannot be divided. It is not a weapon that makes you a warrior—it is your wisdom.

The warrior understands that their greatest power is in what is not seen. Long before the warrior is seen or heard, they must be felt. The greatest of warriors wins battles without their opponent ever even knowing a war has been waged. Although others may see your skill with a bow or your expertise with a sword, you must never forget that your greatest weapon is wisdom.

An essential component of wisdom is the ability to get to the core. Wisdom always finds a way through the mess we make of life. It doesn’t find the easiest way, but the way marked by the footprints of God. Wisdom knows that ancient paths will lead us into a divine future. Wisdom is the product of a sacred imagination. Wisdom knows the way to freedom. Where there is wisdom, there is always hope. Wisdom simplifies. Wisdom clarifies. Wisdom untangles. Wisdom unshackles. Wisdom illuminates. Wisdom liberates. In the end wisdom enlightens us to live lives of nobility.20