ISSUE No. 59 | JULY 2025
WELCOME
If you’re new to CULTIVARE we welcome you! CULTIVARE is a monthly field guide for life and faith, brought to you by TEND. Each month we explore a specific “field” – a topic or theme through which we seek to cultivate contemplation, engagement, and deeper understanding. Our guiding questions are:
What are you cultivating in your life?
What fruit do you want your life to bear?
Each issue of CULTIVARE is structured into three parts:
Cultivate: Examines a specific “Field” or facet of life and offers questions to unearth and challenge our held perspective; along with concise kernels of truth which we call “Seeds.”
Irrigate: Explores the ways we nurture our understanding, which varies from individual to individual. We offer six means of irrigation: Art, Poetry, Profile, Film, Essay, and Books.
Germinate: Encourages practical ways to engage in becoming more fruitful and free in our lives.
Our name, CULTIVARE, in Spanish means “I will cultivate.” We hope each issue of our field guide will encourage you to do just that – cultivate new thoughts, actions, faith, hope, and fruitful living. We invite you to dig in and DIG DEEP!
FIELD
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.
(I Corinthians 3:9)
Our theme this month is PEACE. This is the sixth in our nine-part series on the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law (ESV).
Are you feeling peaceful these days? For many of us the answer to that question is an emphatic “NO!” Why not, you ask? The list is long, from wars and strife, political division and discord, environmental threats, relational injury and isolation, loss and longing, hunger and hopelessness, all making us feel more anxious than peaceful.
The Miriam-Webster Dictionary offers strikingly contrasting definitions for “anxious” and “peace:”
ANXIOUS: 1) Characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency; 2) Characterized by, resulting from, or causing anxiety; and 3) Ardently or earnestly wishing.
PEACE: 1) A state of tranquility or quiet; 2) Freedom from civil disturbance; 3) A state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom; 4) Freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions; 5) Harmony in personal relations; and 6) A state of mutual concord between governments.
We live in anxious times, but our longing is for peace. Peace in our hearts and minds, peace in our families, peace in our communities, peace in our world. We are aware that there are no easy answers or simple solutions. Peace is not about denial or escapism. Exclaiming, “Serenity now!” just doesn’t bring us peace.
In this issue we provide a variety of offerings to help you navigate anxiety on the path to peace. We feature an original essay by Andrew DeCort entitled “Peace: A Divine Mystery.” We profile Job in the Old Testament, who experienced unanswered prayers but also unimageable peace. We feature two films based on true stories, one a feature film and the other a documentary. And we feature two articles in our Dig Deeper section that offer practical tools to deal with anxiety. We also want to remind our readers that we previously published an issue on PEACEMAKERS. (Issue #43) found in our Archives.
Tim Keller once observed: “Christian peace comes not from thinking less but from thinking more, and more intensely, about the big issues of life.” We hope this issue helps you to do just that—to think more deeply about the big issues of life, that the Fruit of the Spirit PEACE may be cultivated and experienced in your life. Shalom! (DG)
***
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26 NIV)
Seek peace and pursue it.
(Psalm 34:14 NIV)
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
(Isaiah 26:3 NIV)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
(John 16:33 ESV)
***
TEND CAN HELP! If you would like to take tangible steps working toward a new chapter in your life TEND can help. Explore our offerings by clicking here:
SEEDS
A handful of quotes to contemplate and cultivate into your life
Peace is the rest of will that results from assurance about how things will turn out.
(Dallas Willard)
The real enemies of peace are hopelessness, fear, and isolation. (Henri Nouwen)
When we sit in stillness, something ancient within us emerges to restore balance and peace. (John O’Donohue)
True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.
(Martin Luther King Jr.)
The stresses that you experience are like the waves that rock the boat of your heart and mind as you navigate the waters of life. And God’s peace is like that center of gravity, a balancing, buoyant force holding your little boat steady as it’s tossed about on the waves of fear, anxiety, and difficult circumstances. His peace guards your boat from filling with too much water, keeping the waves from capsizing you. (Jennifer Tucker)
We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power.
Then will our world know the blessings of peace. (William E. Gladstone)
Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions. (Pema Chödrön)
Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.
(Randy Armstrong)
Wherever the gospel is preached and heard, it produces peace and brings unity, for Christ is our peace. (John Calvin)
ART
Artist of the Month
Casper David Friedrich
(1774-1940)
By Eugene Kim
The artwork of Caspar David Friedrich invites us into private spaces that act as visual liturgy, reminding the viewer that the peace of God, the kind that transcends human understanding, is often discovered in the fog-shrouded unknown or when our diminutive frames are dwarfed by the vast darkness of the sea and the empty void of an expansive sky.
Friedrich’s best-known Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (see above) depicts the backside of a well-dressed gentleman standing steady if not contemplative in the foreground, set against a stormy sea of fog punctuated by jagged peaks of mountains whose sharp edges could gut the belly of a triple-masted ship. The visage is not gentle, and like Aslan, there is nothing safe about it. Yet the man’s silent stance reveals a respectful awe of God’s fearsome creation, an uncommon calm in the storm, and an unspoken admission of the limits of human understanding. He leans slightly upon a cane or walking stick, an intentional tell that conveys the weakness of our frame as well as the vine-branch connection of the human body to the Rock of Ages upon which we stand.
Gazing upon Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea, Heinrich von Kleist (1821) claims that “nothing could be more somber nor more disquieting than to be placed thus in the world: the one sign of life in the immensity of the kingdom of death, the lonely center of a lonely circle.” Others, like me, step into Friedrich’s masterpiece and admittedly see the solitary monk engulfed in grayish shades of sand, sea, and sky, but surprisingly, his posture is a relaxed curvilinear stroke—he leans back, hand pensively holding his bearded chin, the other tucked away in his simple drab robe. As if he understands some ancient secret about the infinite sky, the fathomless sea, and the uncountable sands of the beach, he seems well with his soul, at peace with both the expansive space above, around, and beyond him as well as the self-awareness of his inconsequentiality.
In both of these pieces, the faces of men are not clearly visible. We cannot see and can only imagine the emotion in their eyes. What we do see in both men is a non-rigid posture, a bending back or to the side. We see a surrender to the sublime, and through this, an unusual calm. I am reminded that the spiritual fruit of peace is rarely manifested nor needed in our best moments or uncontested spaces. It is discovered when trapped in the dark belly of a ravenous whale, the stern of a boat tossed by violent storms, and the wind-blown peaks of mountains in a sea of fog. In these sacred spaces we are held in the vastness of a God who is both creator and sustainer.
POETRY
Flickering Mind
By Denise Levertov
Lord, not you,
it is I who am absent...
I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river's purling and passing.
Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I who am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow,
you the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain's heart
the sapphire I know is there?
PROFILE
JOB:
Unanswered Prayers, Unimaginable Peace
By Bonnie Fearer
John 8:32 says, You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Being set free…Think about it. Could that feel like anything other than perfect peace?
In many respects, these words of Jesus have an echo that goes back to one of the oldest stories in the Bible, the story of Job, a man who had it all. He had cattle, numerous children, good health, land, servants, wealth, and a deep faith in God. His righteousness was known to his community and—maybe a little—to himself. The 42 chapters of the Book of Job outline his suffering, as one blessing after another is removed from him. His children and servants die, he is stripped of his wealth and, finally, he is stricken with illness that brings him to despair.
The Book of Job is a deep-dive into of the problem of evil and suffering. “Why do the righteous suffer?” is the operative question throughout. Job himself wonders how it could be that he, a righteous man who has lived a life of faithful observation to all that God asks, could be punished in this way? The Book of Job portrays the more complex reality that, while the moral choices humans make do matter, the truth is that—on this side of heaven—suffering is experienced by good people. But, for Job (see Bible verse above), “knowing the truth” translated to a righteousness of “right living.” How could this be happening to him?
The culmination of Job’s story comes when he argues his case before God. What has he done? Why him? Show yourself God!
And then, Job 38:1, “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.”
God does not respond to Job with explanation or answer, but with his powerful Presence. He reveals his power in a way that leaves Job speechless. When he’s able to speak again, Job says, “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” (40:3-5)
And then, this: “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” (42:5)
It is at this point that Job knows the Truth, and it does set him free. He is settled, and at peace. This peace Job experienced came at a cost, as it often does with us. His peace came through turmoil and loss, and the peace he experienced had nothing to do with anything Job had done -- good or bad. Job illustrates for us that true peace does not necessarily come to us by way of receiving answers—but with the powerful Presence of God.
FILM
Each month we recommend films focused on our theme
Feature Film
The Straight Story
(1999)
Based on a true story, The Straight Story shows us one man’s determination to visit his sick brother by journeying 240 miles on his riding lawnmower. At 73 years-old and in failing health himself, Alvin Straight had no driver’s license or transport from his home in Laurens, Iowa to his brother’s home in Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. Yet his desire for peace with his estranged brother was so great that he began what he knew would be a several-week journey at 5 miles per hour. The film follows his journey, his encounters with kind strangers along the way, and his own need for personal peace. The message of the film is that peace takes time, effort, and risk, and that it’s worth it. The film was directed by David Lynch. Richard Farnsworth starred as Alvin and received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal. Available on various streaming services.
Trailer: View Now
Documentary Film
Paper Lanterns
(2016)
The U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 was responsible for at least 140,000 deaths in 1945. The vast majority of victims were Japanese civilians, but ten were American prisoners of war. Paper Lanterns (1 hour) is a highly moving film that documents the efforts of Hiroshima survivor Shigeaki Mori to identify and contact the family members of those Americans. The film includes interviews with Mori and two American family members, as well as film of their meeting in Japan. We see how Mr. Mori, though himself a witness to the horrific casualties of his own people, could not find personal peace until he had honored the American victims and brought peace to their families. Available on various streaming services including free on Amazon Prime.
Short Film
Not as the World Gives
(4 minutes)
We can all struggle everyday with the pressures and frustrations that can make life a struggle, but if we make time for Jesus then all of these worldly problems are put into a new perspective.
Sermon
Peace of Heart by John Mark Comer
(62 minutes)
What would you do if you weren't afraid?
John Mark delves into the idea that true peace is more than the absence of conflict—it is a profound inner state offered as a gift from God. He encourages listeners to cultivate this peace of heart as a vital part of their discipleship and witness in a world filled with fear and anxiety.
ESSAY
Peace: A Divine Mystery
By Andrew DeCort
This essay is meant to be about peace. But I need to begin with an unsettled confession. I’m not sure I’m qualified to write it.
Personal peace might be described as a non-anxious presence. It’s a way of being that trusts we are safe and oriented toward wholeness even through suffering. We live in peace when we internalize that our existence belongs to a good God, and so, come what may, we don’t need to be controlled by the dread of disaster. We’ll be okay. The late pastor Tim Keller called peace “confidence and rest in the sovereignty of God more than our own.”
But I’ve been feeling anxious again. Yes, I hygiene my mental health and rehearse my core convictions. God made all of me, all of us, indeed, every thing because God is love. In love, God is not absent to our distress but suffers with us when pain, tragedy, and evil afflict us and seemingly maul us beyond hope. And in the end, God will heal us with a healing so entire, so interior and total, that even our most terrible wounds will become like half-remembered scars of childhood. From this expansive perspective, anything that life can throw at us is “light and temporary,” as Paul penned.
And still, I worry. Sometimes it’s a running but regulated sense of dis-ease in my body, a restless rumination in my mind. Sometimes it dials up to an acute pulse of panic that life may become unbearable.
Last night blended some of both. I took my 79-year-old, stroke-surviving mom to dinner with two of our oldest family friends. The food was delicious. The conversation reminisced about moments of “heaven on earth” in our past. Our hugs held decades of affection. Still, there was no suppressing the invisible ocean of grief churning at that table—my dad’s death by heart failure, their sons’ (and my friends’) death by car accident and cancer, a mutual friend’s suicide, our neighbors’ devastation in war. On the drive home, the sunset was radiant, like golden foil blazing with oozing oil. I could see it in the sky, but I couldn’t feel it in my heart. Back home, a dark distress stabbed through me: Do I have what it takes to live?
Peace for me is a bit like the phone network: it goes in and out. Sometimes it’s crystal clear, simply there; I’m confident that nothing––personal anxieties, political atrocities, natural catastrophies––can separate us from God’s non-anxious presence. Sometimes it comes through in fragments but still enough to piece together. Sometimes it seems to drop altogether and disappear. In those moments, I ask for the thousandth time, “Is this when it never comes back again?”
I want to turn this errant essay around, maybe offer a three-step formula for peace or tell a moving story about someone who lost everything and still lived with a non-anxious presence. (Have you heard the one about the man whose four daughters drowned and who then wrote the hymn “It Is Well” which begins “When peace like a river attendeth my way”)? But in the background of my mind, questions keep bouncing around like self-moving ping-pong balls: Will we have enough if that happens? Did I make a mistake standing for peace in Ethiopia’s civil war, which forced us to flee into exile and upended our lives? Is pursuing the work I feel called to do worth the precarious insecurity that comes with it? Can I do what I need to do today knowing that a very dear friend has just learned that her brother committed suicide?
Attentive readers might recall that I wrote at Easter about the “eucatastrophe” of Jesus’ resurrection. I said that our catastrophizing may, in fact, come true and, even then, we’ll still be okay. Joy wins. Like Jesus, we may get executed by life, but we will also be resurrected beyond death. This is the Christian story, and I still believe it is true. But between then and now, the network tweaked, and it’s harder for me to hear the signal again. The word “peace” comes through less like a non-anxious presence and more like a troubled longing.
Perhaps my unsettled confession resonates with a similar confession inside of you.
I find some solace in this unprofound observation. Paul calls peace “the fruit of the Spirit.” If we take Paul’s metaphor seriously, peace is not ultimately something we produce in ourselves. It’s God’s crop. Of course, we can tend to our garden by making choices that nurture peace: recentering in prayer, forgiving, exercising, talking with friends, being present to our grief, doing breath-work, reducing media consumption, seeking professional help, taking medication, reaching out to others who also need a touch of peace. Yes to all of these expressions of our God-given agency. But perhaps peace is ultimately and mysteriously God’s to produce, not ours.
I admit that I still find this unsettling. If peace is the fruit of divine presence, why doesn’t God produce more of it in us and more often? This question easily spirals into an abyss of introspection: Do I need to do more/better tending of my garden so God can produce more/better peace in me? Is there something wrong with me? (Isn’t peace ultimately my achievement or failure?)
But if peace is primarily God’s fruit to produce, maybe we can depathologize our anxious presence on this earth and make some peace with peace’s mystery. It’s hard to be human. To miss people. To be unsure of tomorrow. To suffer and know that others are also suffering. To carry wounds, however temporary they may be. Love, which Paul names as the first fruit of God, denies none of this. In God’s time, there will be an abundant harvest of non-anxious presence—maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, maybe on the other side. But for now, we can shamelessly weep and sweat blood like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane.
May we be reminded that God’s work was not completed in that garden. God’s sovereign work of redemption and renewal forged deeper roots. Be encouraged that God is not done in our garden, even when we’re anxious. This, too, is part of trusting “in the sovereignty of God more than our own.”
***
Andrew DeCort is the author of Blessed Are the Others: Jesus’ Way in a Violent World (BitterSweet Collective, 2024) and Reviving the Golden Rule: How the Ancient Ethic of Neighbor Love Can Heal the World (IVP Academic, forthcoming). He founded the Institute for Faith and Flourishing, co-leads Prophetic: The Public Theology Fellowship, and writes the newsletter Stop & Think.
BOOKS
Each month we recommend a book (or two) focused on our theme
NON-FICTION
Deep Peace:
Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety
By Todd Hunter
We live in a fearful, anxiety-driven age where the problems and challenges of the world assault us from every direction and every media source, and they far exceed our abilities to respond to them. The sense of desperation that often comes of this leads to discord and violence: from bitter, cutting remarks to the atrocities of war; from pervasive racism to knee-jerk micro-aggressions. It contributes to our current, peace-bankrupt social discourse, leading to patterns of dismissing, dividing from, condemning, or hating people.
But what if the root of these problems is not found out there, in the situations, the information or misinformation of what's happening in the world? What if they come from here: in our minds, hearts, thought-life, and emotions?
FICTION
Peace Like a River
By Leif Enger
A “reminder of why we read fiction to begin with” (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger’s extraordinary debut novel—a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world—
with over one million copies sold.
Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it’s up to us to “make of it what we will.” Reuben was born with no air in his lungs, and it was only when his father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that his lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.
CHILDRENS
What Does Peace Feel Like?
By Vladimir Radunsky
Peace. What does that word really mean? Ask children from around the world, and this is what they say…
DIG DEEPER
Practical suggestions to help you go deeper into our theme
1. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Devote some time and thought to these reflective questions on our theme:
a. What physical sensations do you experience when you're anxious?
b. How can you learn to be more accepting of what is not in your control?
c. What do you have in your life right now to be grateful for?
d. When have you felt most at peace? What contributed to that feeling?
e. What physical setting gives you a sense of peace?
f. When was the last time you spent time in that setting?
g. What do you need in this season to give you a deeper sense of peace?
2. FOUR COMFORTS FOR ANXIOUS CHRISTIANS
In this article by Beth Claes published by The Gospel Coalition, she observes: “Anxiety and depression affect all kinds of people, regardless of spiritual development and maturity. The Bible helps us see that faith can flourish even amid fear and anguish. Yet there’s a tension here: following Christ doesn’t prevent us from struggling, but we’re called to struggle differently than those who don’t follow Christ.” Explore the entire article here: View Now
3. I FEEL ANXIOUS: 10 TIPS FOR DEALING WITH ANXIETY
Feeling tense, restless, or fearful? Anxiety can make you feel trapped in your own head, but these tools can help you ease tension, stay present, and manage anxiety. Explore the tools here:
4. MUSIC VIDEO: PRINCE OF PEACE by JOSH BALDWIN
May this song written and performed by Josh Baldwin be of encouragement to you.
A sample of the lyrics:
I’ve been walking by troubled waters
Here in the shadow all alone
And I’ve been worried about tomorrow
Stuck in a world I can’t control.
I met you as a Savior
I’ve found in you a friend
I’ve seen you as a healer
My help and my defense
God, you’ve been my provider
But right now, what I need
Is You to be my Prince of Peace
Come and be my Prince of Peace.
5. PRAYER by John O’Donohue
As the fever of day calms towards twilight
May all that is strained in us come to ease.
We pray for all who suffered violence today,
May an unexpected serenity surprise them.
For those who risk their lives each day for peace,
May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.
That those who make riches from violence and war
Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.
That we might see through our fear of each other
A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.
That those who enjoy the privilege of peace
Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.
That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,
That our swords be beaten into ploughshares
And no hurt or harm be done
Anywhere along the holy mountain
ROOTED
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV)
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FIELD NOTES
Images used in order of appearance:
1. FIELD: Bradley D. Keister, Outer Hebrides, 2025.
2. SEEDS: Bradley D. Keister, Colorado, 2023.
3. ART: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 1818.
4. POETRY: Bradley D. Keister, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, 2024.
5. PROFILE: Gustave Dore, Job Speaks with His Friends, 1866, public domain.
6. FILM: Bradley D. Keister, Countryside, Morocco, 2022.
7. ESSAY: Jean Guichard, La Jument, France, 1989.
8. BOOKS: Bradley D. Keister, Outer Hebrides, 2025.
9. DIG DEEPER: Bradley D. Keister, Stromalite Park, Chile, 2022.
10. ROOTED: Kathryn B. Keister, Torres del Paine, Chile, 2022.
TEAM CULTIVARE: Duane Grobman (Editor), Greg Ehlert, Bonnie Fearer, Lisa Hertzog, Karen Kang, Eugene Kim, Olivia Mather, Andrew Massey, Rita McIntosh, Jason Pearson (Design: Pearpod.com)
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and suggestions for future issues.
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