{"id":40491,"date":"2016-07-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/is-peace-absence-of-people\/"},"modified":"2016-07-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T00:00:00","slug":"is-peace-absence-of-people","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/is-peace-absence-of-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Peace the Absence of People?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While elaborating on loving one&#39;s neighbor, apologist Michael Ramsden spoke of a colleague who while in Asia asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. After a few seconds the audience was invited to share their mental pictures of peace. One person described a field with flowers and beautiful trees. Another person spoke of snow-capped mountains and an incredible alpine landscape. Still another described the scene of a beautiful, still lake.<\/p>\n\n<p>After everyone described their mental picture of peace there was one thing common in them all&mdash;there were no people in them. Ramsden commented, &quot;Isn&#39;t it interesting, when asked to imagine peace the first thing we do is to eliminate everyone else.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3422,3470,3532,3535,3644,3647,3722,3726,3777,3778,3808,3982,4383,4527,4535,4615,4701,4708,4753,4754,4755,4792,4795,4822,4974,5014,5016,5086,5216,5304],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40491","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-anxiety","tax_ctp_tags-balance","tax_ctp_tags-burnout","tax_ctp_tags-busyness","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-companionship","tax_ctp_tags-crowd","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-devotional-life","tax_ctp_tags-devotions","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship","tax_ctp_tags-loneliness","tax_ctp_tags-nature-of-human","tax_ctp_tags-neighbor","tax_ctp_tags-peace","tax_ctp_tags-pressure","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-quiet","tax_ctp_tags-quiet-time","tax_ctp_tags-quietness","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-relaxation","tax_ctp_tags-rest","tax_ctp_tags-silence","tax_ctp_tags-society","tax_ctp_tags-solitude","tax_ctp_tags-stress","tax_ctp_tags-unrest","tax_ctp_tags-worry"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Peace the Absence of People? - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/is-peace-absence-of-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Peace the Absence of People? - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While elaborating on loving one&#039;s neighbor, apologist Michael Ramsden spoke of a colleague who while in Asia asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. 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