Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

At fifteen I had no clear conception of God, but there was something slightly scandalous in the broad tolerance of that "whatever."

Over the years I have considered many explanations for and manifestations of God. The vast majority strike me as commendable.

I have settled on a God that is beneficently mysterious, and whom I can know through the example of Jesus and the working of nature.

It has been much more difficult to keep peace with my own soul, and especially with my aspirations. These are less consistently beneficent.

Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Plato and many others - each in their own way - teach that peace is the outcome of aiming our labors and aspirations toward divine intention.