I have been
struggling to understand what God expects of us regarding “being peacemakers”
for a few years now. I know that Jesus
says a lot about peacemaking (Matt 5:42-44, Luke 6:26-28, 35-36, etc.). In fact, the whole bible is full of commands
and encouragements and examples of how to make peace. But those stories either seem way too hard to
do, or not meaningful to me.
Lately I have
been listening to others who find themselves on this path towards living at
peace in the world. Buddhists seem to
have a lot of wisdom about this topic. I
have a friend who often shares the wisdom she draws from her religion.
The struggle I
have is not so much to respond in anger when people hurt me or treat me poorly;
I struggle more with my attitude and with trying not to cause problems or pain
for others. The person I interact with
most is my husband, and there are some examples I can draw on that I think we
can all relate to. For example,
sometimes he wants to do watch a movie together or go out some place that we
would both enjoy. He is motivated by his
love for me and his interest in the movie or speaker. However, sometimes I want to do something
else. Not something bad, but something
that only benefits me (play a video game, watch a movie he wouldn’t enjoy); and
I try to get my way. At that moment I am
not thinking about peace; I am only thinking about doing what I want.
The question I
have is: when is it OK to pursue my own desires and when should I be willing to
give? I mean, Jesus and the Bible make
it sound like we should always be making peace with people. So does that mean I can state my preference,
but I should give in if it seems like someone would be hurt? Or does it only mean not returning violence
with violence? But how do you define
violence?
Or is God only
talking about systemic violence? I know
that shooting unarmed people, regardless of race, is wrong. In the old days, I’m pretty sure the police
would try to arrest someone instead of shoot them. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what I
think. And the capitalist system we
currently have, with so few protections for workers and consumers is certainly
hurting and even killing people.
Millions of children and elderly people are hungry, that seems like a
form of violence when so many other people have enough food to throw a lot of
it away.
What do you think
is expected of us?
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