Peace.

It was not before coming to Saskatchewan that I realized how “peace” was an important value among Christians. Well I say this very carefully, but this so-called peace is not the shalom God has in mind for His children or the kind of peace Jesus preached. What I am saying is that we Christians want to keep our communities, our work places (if Christian), our churches at peace, this desire is good, but the way we actually “produce” this peace among Christians, is often wrong. Here are some things I’ve figured:
- To avoid conflict is one way to keep everyone at peace;
- To agree with everything someone says keeps our relationship at peace (but it’s fine if I turn around and gossip about this person);
- People and relationships must look peaceful and good from the outside, what’s really going on inside is a different story and that’s fine, we’re at peace!

I’ve been reading in the prophets for a while and I’ve never encountered a passage where God tells a prophet to keep quiet about some people’s sins, because peace would be disturbed and the prophet might look bad in the eyes of these people. Rather, God said that if the prophet would keep quiet, the blood of the people He was about to judge would be on the prophet’s head (see Ezekiel 3:17-19).

Yes we are called to live at peace, but Jesus does not mean “outward” peace, He means real, genuine shalom. If we want to live at peace with our fellow brothers and sisters, we need to deal with them in ways that are “Jesus like”. It requires honesty, humility, selflessness and love… not only from others, but first of all, from ourselves. Peace is no peace at all when our hearts are bitter and our faces are happy. We are fake. When there is a issue, a conflict among us, it doesn’t mean we’re ungodly or “unspiritual”, the way we deal with other people’s mistakes, sins, the way we forgive or not, the way we think about things that frustrate us, will tell if we are truly seeking real peace or simply wanting to take a shortcut to fake peace, building bitterness inside, this I call “immaturity”.

After searching our hearts and finding why we feel the way we do, let’s not be scarred to open up and be seen as we are. Let’s just be honest and true with one another, let’s seek real peace, working through conflicts in godly, mature ways. No body is perfect but we need to be real and stop being so proud about ourselves.

Bank for Native Missionaries: 8$ as of June 7, 2006. www.banknm.blogspot.com