The
world sees so much fighting. From the
beginning there was combat. Cain
killed his brother Abel, after all. They were Adam and Eve’s kids.
Four
people in, and there's fighting.
I
have two brothers, and took part in plenty of fighting. Growing up, my older brother and I fought
about everything. My younger brother and
I didn’t always fight, but there was contention. You live with someone long enough and there
will be combat.
Our
kids fight at home; it gets physical, with punching and pushing and kicking and
pinching and yelling and tears. I want
to run away when they fight. Their noise
jangles my nerves. Their words hurt my
heart.
My husband and I fight. I say something thoughtless and he reacts. He is insensitive and I'm hurt. I complain and he takes it personally. At the source our solutions are simple: I
need to hold my tongue, or he needs to react less strongly. In every situation, we need to understand each other.
I
am not much of a fighter. I’m soft with
age, with mothering. I try to end it
before it begins. I see things more and more in terms
of peaceful opportunities. I’ve known a
lot of people, heard about their hurts and why they fight against the world. Although made uniquely, at the core we are
all the same. We have the same biological makeup. We all have good and bad
feelings, and we are all created under the same sky and inhabit the same earth.
I believe that we can be at peace, two at a time. I believe that we can do
things peacefully if given the chance.
But
life is hard. We are hurt, taken
advantage of, experience violence, dry the tears of loved ones who have been
harmed. We seek revenge. We hate. We become willing to fight to the death because
of differences in beliefs, nations, skin color, gender, socioeconomics, or lifestyle. We fight out our differences in the streets,
in the courtrooms, in the games arena, on the battlefield. Violence, like disease, has the power to
twist a destiny. We employ verbal combat
every day on the internet. We never
waste an opportunity to fight with someone else because of what we perceive to
be wrong, or stupid, or just to unload our frustrations onto an anonymous,
unwitting recipient.
We
say that we keep guns for protection, but ultimately, we keep them for killing.
It
jangles my nerves. The noise – it’s too
loud. My heart hurts.
I
pray to God for peace a lot. Peace
between enemies, peace within people’s hearts. In the
same way I pray for peace in my own home when the noise becomes too much for me
to bear, I pray for peace on the earth, between individuals who need to
understand each other.
I
know peace is unlikely in a grand sense - I’m not that much of an idealist. I know that this world is sinful and
broken. From the time of Adam and Eve we’ve
been faced with jealousy, hatred, and fighting.
There has been war, there is war, and there will be war.
It
is our human nature. But I like to think
about what peace would really look like.
I like to practice it when I can.
In
a shrinking minority of peace-loving people, I am grateful that God is for
peace, and that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, came here to pave the way for all
of us to enter his Kingdom. I am
grateful that even though our earth is not full of peace, someday it will be.
And
that heals my heart a little.
*******
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and
through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and
on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians
1:19-21 (NLT)
Turn away from evil and do good. Search
for peace, and work to maintain it. 1
Peter 3:11 (NLT)
If it is possible, as far as it
depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 (NIV)
I want peace too. I can get physically sick from conflict. Fortunately in my own household there is mostly peace (my husband is humble or that would not be the case). :-)
ReplyDeleteYou are a very lucky woman. There is less humility in this house. ;)
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