Peacemaking

Matthew 5:9 NASB

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

When I was a naive kid, I used to read that verse and get excited about how God might want to use me to bring about WORLD PEACE. I used to think that making peace meant staying out of fights or doing whatever I could to stay away from conflict. 

In theory, of course. I have a big sister who is the polar opposite of me. We fought and argued like crazy. And I'm stubborn; sometimes I like to argue or stand my ground just so I can pretend I'm right. So even if my childish ideas of peacemaking ever were at all practical, I wasn't good at putting them into practice anyway.

But my ideas were never reality. The reality is, there won't be peace on this earth as long as there are people living on it. We're sinners. We're selfish. We want our own way. And being a peacemaker is just...well...hard.

It's also not passive. I once believed that avoiding conflict was peacemaking. It can be part of it, but peacemaking involves work, and lots of it. It involves giving of self and time. It involves risk and pain. In fact, peacemaking involves war.

We too easily forget that we are at war, that there are forces of evil working against us all the time. There's terrible injustice in the world. There's corruption. There's compromise. And Satan would like nothing better for us to be passive, to pretend that there's nothing wrong or that there's nothing worth fighting for.

That's not the case.

I don't claim to be a peacemaker or even really know how to be one, but I believe it takes a great amount of discernment, of humility, of personal sacrifice, of endurance. 

It takes discernment to know what things are worth fighting for. It takes discernment to know whether to be silent or to speak, when to embrace and to refrain. Peacemaking involves far more wisdom than anyone can muster up on their own. Peacemakers need to pray for guidance, that their minds and hearts will be open to truth, that God will convict and lead them according to His will. We can't claim we know His will unless we continually seek it, unless we continually seek Him.

Peacemakers MUST have humility, first to admit that they are sinners in need of grace they can never repay. They must be willing to yank the planks out of their own eyes before trying to help pull out another person's speck. They must be willing to overlook minor insults, and deal graciously with more major offenses. They must point others to truth instead of just trying to prove themselves right.  They must be quick to offer apology and restitution for any offenses they caused, whether they are accidental or intentional offenses. They must be willing to, whenever possible, make peace with all men, so far as it depends on them (Romans 12:18).

Peacemakers must be willing to sacrifice. Peacemaking involves time, energy, emotional investments. A person can't hope to make real peace unless that person truly, selflessly cares. Peacemaking often involves confronting others with truth-often truth others don't want to hear.  Peacemaking sometimes means standing by God's truth even when no one else is standing by it. Peacemaking can even involve force when injustice is severe. Peacemakers risk the potential of ridicule, of losing friends for the sake of truth, even of personal harm in some extreme cases. When something is worth fighting for, there often can't be peace without a painful struggle.

And sometimes that struggle doesn't end overnight. Sometimes the struggle goes on for years. Sometimes a peacemaker must pray and wait and pray and hope and pray and hurt and pray for years, with no guarantee that peace will ever come.

I know about a mom who is fighting a very unjust ruling over the custody of her son. Her son is worth fighting for.

I know several people who are compromising or even denying their faith to follow the world and its understanding. Their souls are worth fighting for.

I am burdened for those children, for those men and women who are trapped in slavery, some of them who have never known joy and hope. Their freedom is worth fighting for. They are worth fighting for.

Maybe the true definition of a peacemaker is a person who can't have peace until others have it too...and not the peace that this world gives, but the peace of God.

I used to have this saying. "Love is the only weapon that cannot fall into the wrong hands."  No one ever liked that saying, so I stopped saying it, but I still believe there's truth to it. Love, prayer, truth. These are the weapons we have against satan and all the forces that are trying to steal peace. We aren't fighting flesh and blood.

And I don't know if I'll ever be a true Peacemaker, but I do know I'm a child of God. And I do know that He's giving me a heart like His own, one that breaks for those who have no peace. I can't be passive anymore.

God came down in humility as a baby, lived as a man, died on a cross, and defeated death...all to make peace with a rebellious people.

Peace is costly.

But I believe it's something worth pursuing.

Feliz Navidad! Friday: Christmas Decorations

One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting my Christmas ornaments and decorations out of storage.  This usually happens pretty soon after Thanksgiving (or sometimes even a little bit before).  I like opening the box, which has contained and concentrated the smells of the Christmas candles from years gone by.  A delightful smell greets me, reminding me of Christmas seasons from my childhood, as well as more recent Christmases.  I love opening little boxes where I've placed random decorations, getting that surprise when I find an ornament I'd forgotten I'd even had.  It's like Christmas morning, only the presents I receive are ones that I had packed away the previous January (or February...).  And each decoration has a memory--whether I received it as a gift from someone I love, or whether I bought it for myself because it somehow caught my attention.

Last year, I bought myself a decoration.  It's a blue glittery wooden word: "Peace."  I bought this because last year, starting near Christmas, "Peace" was a concept God was showing me, both through the Christmas story, and through Scripture and life in general.  God, through His goodness, came down to earth in the form of man in order to offer peace to rebellious mankind.  I wanted a reminder of that, and of the things the Lord has been teaching me (and is still teaching me). 

This year, I was tempted to look for an ornament or other decoration that says, "Hope," since that is the theme the Lord has been showing me for this Christmas (and the following year).  But when I took out my Christmas decorations, I found an ornament that I'd been given the year before.  I got this for teaching MOPS last year, and it's just perfect.  I have it hanging along side my "peace sign."

I have a few treasured childhood ornaments, as well as several newer ornaments from kids and families and friends whom I love.  Some of my favorite newer pieces are my nutcracker (that was given to me by a little boy who insisted that I needed a nutcracker--apparently everyone needs at least one of those), my nativity scene advent wreath, and my Santa hats for my lamp kitties.  That's right.  Lamp kitties.  With Santa hats. 

...this is probably why I'm single...

Of course, the centerpiece of all my Christmas decorating is my Christmas Beam.  You see, in my current apartment, I haven't bothered with an actual tree.  No, this 100+ year old apartment with 12 foot ceilings has come equipped with a large wooden beam in the middle of the living room.  Well, what better to do with a large wooden beam in the middle of the living room than to cover it in ghetto garland, mini taped-on ornaments, and lights?

What are some of your favorite Christmas decorations?  Do they remind you of anything or anyone special?

War and Peace

I've never read any Tolstoy, and I have a pretty good idea that I just won't be reading "War and Peace" unless I get really bored someday.  The Final Jeopardy "answer" from yesterday was about "War and Peace"...and that was the first time I learned the book had multiple epilogues.  If a book is so long that it needs more than one epilogue, I'm probably not going to have the attention span to read it.

But over the past few months, I've been learning a lot about peace.  And just when I think I've finally gotten the gist of what God has been trying to teach me, He teaches me something that gives me all sorts of new questions. 

This past Sunday I was subbing for one of the people on the praise team at my church.  Since I was subbing, I didn't figure out what songs we were singing until I showed up for the sound check that Sunday morning.  To my surprise, I discovered we weren't just singing that morning, but all members of the praise team were participating in a responsive reading sort of thing.  That's when the leader (or, in our case, leaders) reads Scripture or perhaps something based on Scripture, and the congregation responds by reading another Scripture (or something based on Scripture) in unison. 

I don't do public speaking.  If I had known that I would be expected to do "solo reading" in front of people, I would have told them "NO WAY" when they asked me to be on praise team.  But as it was, I was stuck.  So I did the reading...and just like with singing, the reading wasn't about me anyway.  But it was interesting.  I had to read two Scriptures from Psalms.  Both of them dealt with preparing for war.

And I was thinking about it as we were rehearsing.  I was thinking, "God, why are You teaching me so much about peace, and then giving me these Scriptures about how You strengthen my arms for war?"

I kept thinking about this as I went to Sunday School Adult Bible Study.  We've been reading through 1 and 2 Kings.  We're almost done.  But the passage was about Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah.  Now Ahaziah had been the king of Judah until he was killed, and when Athaliah found out he was dead, she killed off the entire royal family so that she could be queen.  But Ahaziah's son, Joash, was rescued and hidden for seven years. 

Then Jehoiada, the priest, took action by hiring hundreds of guards to protect Joash.  He crowned Joash as king publicly, which caught Athaliah's attention.  When she came out, they seized her and she was put to death.

And as the class' teacher was reading this, he stopped and asked us about Jehoiada's actions.  I'm not entirely sure what point he was making (though he probably made a really good one--he usually does) because I was too busy thinking about what I was getting out of it.  Because I realized that while Jehoiada was not perfect, he absolutely did the right thing by hiring men to protect the true king and to dispose of the false queen.  And as a side note, I just have to say that I love it when Scripture has more suspense and intrigue than any novel you could find on a shelf today.

But I think I'm learning even more about peace.  See, when I was a kid, I really loved the Beattitude: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God."  It was my favorite Beattitude, and I guess it was because I figured peace was something I could handle.  And I liked the idea of being a child of God. 

But peace isn't easy.  And peace isn't what I thought it was when I was a kid.  Peace doesn't always mean you back down when there is conflict.  Sometimes that is what it means.  And after also reading some passages in James last week (a very convicting book of the Bible), I was reminded that most of our conflict in life comes when we don't get our own way. 

When a conflict arises just because I'm not getting what I want when I want it how I want it, then the path to peace is as simple and as complex as surrendering to whatever it is I think I want.  If someone offends me over something trivial, peace means overlooking that offense.  If there's only enough coffee in the pot for one person, and both I and another person want it, then peace means letting that other person have the coffee (or compromising and both having half a cup).  If someone is arguing with me over something that doesn't matter, then peace means dropping the argument (sometimes by swallowing pride) and finding something more pure, noble, and praiseworthy to talk about. 

But then there are times when peace means something more than surrender.  Sometimes the only way to get true peace is to fight for it.  The difference is that when peace is something worth fighting for, it usually has something more to do than just me and what I want.  Now, there are times when personal conflicts arise and ignoring them isn't an option.  I like to avoid conflict, but I also sometimes let things bother me, and then they fester.  So I've learned that sometimes I have to confront a situation so that a minor offense doesn't turn into a major grudge.  It's hard to know the difference sometimes, which is why I need a lot of wisdom and a LOT of grace (again--James is a very convicting book).

But usually, when peace is something worth fighting for, it's not about me.  As a depraved human, I often see injustice in terms of myself.  If I can't have something the way I want it when I want it, then I tend to see that particular situation as unfair.  The truth is, injustice goes a lot deeper than the silly things I desire.

What Jehoiada did was not for himself.  He was fighting injustice.  He was fighting for peace by restoring the proper king to the throne. 

And I don't have anything like that to fight for.  Even if I were in a position where I could return a king to power while ridding the government of a corrupt ruler, I have absolutely no brain for politics.  But injustice is all around us in different forms.

Injustice is when a mother watches her baby starve to death because she can't afford to feed him.

Injustice is when a four year old dies from a disease that could have been easily treated with simple medication.

Injustice is when a homeless person has to sleep out on the streets, hungry and cold.

Injustice is when a kid can't sleep at night because she's afraid of bullies at school.

Injustice is when a 12 year old is sold into prostitution.

Injustice is when we fail to meet the needs of orphans and widows. 

So I'm still learning.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly what peace means.  Every time I think I've figured something out, I'm bombarded with more questions about a concept that is far too lofty for me to understand.  All I know is that peace is definitely something worth pursuing.

And sometimes it's something worth fighting for.

Sometimes Christians like to sit around and just pretend everything is okay, and we easily forget that there is a Spiritual battle RAGING around us at all times.  And I know I forget to put on my armor.  I forget to prepare for battle.  It's because I've believed the lie--the lie that there is no battle, that we're at peace as long as we don't open our eyes.

It's easy to pretend that we have peace if we ignore that injustice exists.  My question for myself and for my readers is: Are we brave enough to face reality and fight for peace?

I don't know that I am yet...at least not on a higher level than the little things I'm already doing.  But I'm learning....

Peace

It's safe to say that 2011 has been an "off year" when it comes to writing.  I've not done much--definitely not all the things I had planned to do.  I know the year isn't quite over yet, but that halfway point of JUNE is mocking me, reminding me of how much of a writing failure I am.

Only, I don't feel like a failure at all.  I probably should.  I haven't really met many of my goals.  I haven't really even tried.  Yesterday (okay, and today too), I spent my free afternoon taking a nap and playing stupid computer games.  I think I might have a slight touch of apathy going on right now.  I hope it passes soon--like by next week, when I have lots of time off that can be used to work on query stuff.

Yeah, but I guess I should be more upset that this year hasn't gone exactly as I had planned back in the last few days of 2010.  The last two or three years of my life, I've noticed that my calendar is a week off from the actual calendar.  My New Year doesn't begin on New Year's Day.  It begins at Christmas.  Christmas is the day on which my entire year revolves. 

For the last few Christmases, my brain has focused on one idea that has to do with the Christmas story--with the story of God coming down to earth in the form of man in order to redeem mankind from death and sin.  Three years ago, I focused on the Star--connecting the stars that God showed Abraham back in Genesis 15 with the Star the Wisemen followed in Matthew 2.  I even wrote a song about it.  Two years ago, I focused on Joy. 

When this past Christmas came, I started thinking early about what idea would stand out.  One word kept standing out to me.  Peace. 

Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas (my fave Christmas movie) read a passage from Luke 2--"...Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men."  A song we sang for the choir Christmas program at church--Casting Crown's version of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" with the refrain "Peace on earth.  Peace on earth.  Peace on earth, good will to men." 

I wish I had taken Greek and Hebrew in college instead of going with Spanish (because I can't speak Spanish).  Then I'd be able to have better insight as to what that phrase "peace on earth, good will to men" actually means.  I've read several different translations, which all give the phrase a slightly different meaning.  "Peace on earth to men, on whom His favor rests."  "Peace on earth to those on whom His favor rests."  Does it mean that God offers peace and good will to ALL men?  Does it mean that God offers peace because His favor rests with men?  Does it mean that God offers peace ONLY to those on whom His favor rests?

I wrestled with this for a little while last December.  I came to the conclusion that while the translation and arguments surrounding it might be important at other times and in other circumstances, it didn't really matter to what I was trying to figure out.  The fact is, God did come to earth to offer peace to those who would accept Him.  He created us.  We rebelled against Him.  He came down with us to offer us reconciliation.  The angel came to bring good news.  And it was the best news ever.  I think that's why my whole year revolves around Christmas.  Easter is important too--it's also the best news ever that death couldn't keep Christ in that tomb.  I think the fact that Christ came and the fact that Christ lives are both the best news ever.

The thing is, this whole idea of peace didn't leave me after the Christmas season ended.  And I'm still trying to wrap my feeble human brain around the concept of peace. 

I'm an angry person.  If you haven't noticed this about me, it's not because it's not true.  It's just because you haven't seen it.  The ladies I work with at the drop-in center have seen it.  Lol.  I have a short fuse.  It's not as bad as it used to be, but it still exists.

But I can handle the short fuse a lot better than I can handle the grudges I hold, the bitterness I have let creep into my heart, the irrational senses of unfairness that I feel.  The Lord has been working in my heart since this past Christmas to root out a lot of the anger I didn't even realize I had.  Reminders of past pain and grievances have just popped up at seemingly random times, and I've had to deal with them and/or let them go.  And it's been a long, often difficult process.  And I know He's not done yet.  I'm grateful He loves me enough to work on me...

All of this is to say that sometimes the plans I make for my year, for my month, for my week, for my day--well, all of them can be thwarted quite easily.  I had plans for this to be a major writing year.  The Lord has had plans to work on my heart.  He's showing me that peace, although I can't understand it, is something worth pursuing.  He's showing me that as an imperfect person, I can't hold the imperfections of others against them.  He's showing me how to listen more than I speak.  He's bringing situations into my life that force me to be confrontational, yet He's showing me how to be gentle in the midst of those confrontations.  And I'm learning again that everything that comes into my life is filtered through grace.  God knows things are going to happen to me.  He knew I'd have a couple of financial issues this year (so far).  He knew I'd have to deal with work issues and situations in the lives of friends.  He knows everything that's coming, and He's allowing it--the good and the bad--because everything that comes my way is an opportunity to trust Him and show love to others.
And I have a feeling that peace is found somewhere in the midst of all of that. 

So no, this year hasn't gone exactly as planned.  I could definitely stand to work a little harder, so don't get me wrong.  I'm not using this as a cop-out.  But when it comes down to it, I'm not really that stressed out that things haven't gone as I planned.  God has His own plans.  And I'm hoping that when Christmas rolls around again, I'm closer to peace (and to Him) than I was before.