Advent Thoughts, #13: Giving peace a chance?
A friend wrote on Facebook today, "This is a good time for this: Give peace a chance."
I wish the source of this quote was not the Beatles, who are hardly a credible source for giving peace a chance (they split up after five or six years of stardom! some chance they gave peacemaking!)
So, my first response was, "Why is X quoting hippie-dippies?" He is a little noncomformist, though he's an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
I would say, "don't give it a chance," "pursue peace, in all things." Blessed are the peacemakers. Why are the peacemakers blessed? Is peace always better than war and conflict? Apparently, yes, as long as it is balanced by righteouness and justice. Giving into evil will not really lead to peace--evil will find another way to ensure conflict, will just push the peacemaker-through-compliance to the next level.
We do not study enough about peacemaking in the modern evangelical church. I like to think of myself as a peacemaker, but I wonder if I do it too much through acquiescence rather than through a call and cleaving to righteousness and justice and love.
I recently got caught in a situation at work, inadvertently. I apologized for the confusion I might have caused, because I was not entirely proactive about the situation and things were happening without my knowledge. That happens to me a lot, I fear. I didn't do anything to hurt anyone, but my omissions caused troubles. I had to become a peacemaker, sort of. I could have just said, "The heck with it," but that is not my style.
Is there a line between trying to exert control and peacemaking? Good question.
Regardless, "pursue peace."
Psa 34:14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Rom 14:19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
2Ti 2:22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1Pe 3:11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
I wish the source of this quote was not the Beatles, who are hardly a credible source for giving peace a chance (they split up after five or six years of stardom! some chance they gave peacemaking!)
So, my first response was, "Why is X quoting hippie-dippies?" He is a little noncomformist, though he's an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
I would say, "don't give it a chance," "pursue peace, in all things." Blessed are the peacemakers. Why are the peacemakers blessed? Is peace always better than war and conflict? Apparently, yes, as long as it is balanced by righteouness and justice. Giving into evil will not really lead to peace--evil will find another way to ensure conflict, will just push the peacemaker-through-compliance to the next level.
We do not study enough about peacemaking in the modern evangelical church. I like to think of myself as a peacemaker, but I wonder if I do it too much through acquiescence rather than through a call and cleaving to righteousness and justice and love.
I recently got caught in a situation at work, inadvertently. I apologized for the confusion I might have caused, because I was not entirely proactive about the situation and things were happening without my knowledge. That happens to me a lot, I fear. I didn't do anything to hurt anyone, but my omissions caused troubles. I had to become a peacemaker, sort of. I could have just said, "The heck with it," but that is not my style.
Is there a line between trying to exert control and peacemaking? Good question.
Regardless, "pursue peace."
Psa 34:14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Rom 14:19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
2Ti 2:22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1Pe 3:11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
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