Peace and joy is an inside job.

You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it. While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. Until the “separation,” which is the meaning of the “fall,” nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. You act according to the particular order of needs you establish. This, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are. T-1.VI.1: 1-10

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

This paragraph is so rich it would take a lot of time and effort to unpack the whole thing. Suffice it to write that in the state of non duality there is no lack and therefore no needs. In the state of separation from our Creator there are plenty of needs and what we seek to fill them depends on what we think we are. Are we a body with a spirit or a spirit with a body? Our answer to this question makes all the difference in the world when it comes to our quality of life we experience  during the separation.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in step eleven, that we improve our conscious contact with God. AA encourages us to choose Spirit over the body.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. What is it that we are searching for? We are looking for that thing which we believe will fill the lack we experience. We are looking to achieve a different state of mind because the one we are in leaves something more desired.

Today, we are asked to practice forgiveness which is the giving up of making other people and circumstances responsible for our unhappiness. It is suggested that peace and joy is an inside job.