Seeds of peace

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:17-18)

Plant seeds of peace - reap righteousness. Heaven certainly knows the difficulties we face on this earth all because seeds of peace are not sown as often as those of discord! Relationships are just hard work. Living within communities of any sort can be challenging, to say the least, but it is the way we live on this earth - all mixed up together, with all our hurts and hangups, muddled up in one big mess. I have come to realize we are responsible to create the environment of peace that we so desperately desire. It might be a bit of a challenge to 'sow peace', but we are called to continually work at creating harmony within relationships because it reflects God's love to those we live in community with.

Promoting peace isn't all that simple, though. There are all kinds of 'personalities' and 'temperaments' we deal with on a daily basis. Some are quite deliberately involved in our lives and others we might have a more passive involvement with throughout the day. Notice that we are not told to be peacekeepers, but rather to be peacemakers. In other words, we bring Jesus into the room when we enter and hopefully leave just a little bit of him when we leave. Righteousness is just a fancy word for 'right-living'. Seeds of peace actually can lead to some pretty big changes in the way we interact with others and how they interact with us.

How hard is it to show no favoritism, especially when we interact with someone we really don't agree with versus someone we are close to, admire, and even 'like'? We want to 'side with' the one we 'like' and kind of move away from the one we find it hard to interact with, don't we? Jesus never gave us permission to avoid hard relationships. He just gave us the commission to plant seeds of peace. I won't sugar coat it - this one will be hard. The 'harvest' only changes when the 'seed' that is planted changes. Just sayin!

More than a curfuffle?

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. (I John 4:20-21)

Dwight L. Moody reminds us, "Faith makes all things possible... love makes all things easy." Faith and love are intricately related - interwoven aspects of our walk with Jesus. Love for God necessitates love for people - even those we find it hard to relate to, don't actually agree with, or just plain find offensive. Does it mean we have to have a deep relationship with these individuals? No, but it does mean we will treat them with kindness even when they don't deserve it!

Faith makes all things possible - even getting alone with the 'prickly relative', 'bothersome workmate', or 'pesky neighbor'. It even helps us get along with that one person in our church circle that seems to always be butting in where they don't belong, looking to get their own way when options are discussed, or makes a huge deal about the smallest acts they perform 'for the church'. Love requires us going the extra mile on more occasions than we would actually 'like' to, but if we are to grow in Christ, we will love God first, then allow that love to guide all our interactions on this earth.

On earth today, there are hundreds upon thousands of 'conflicts' occurring. Some will be 'minor', such as a 'curfuffle' amongst two people who quickly get over it and move on like nothing happened. Others will be more dramatic, carrying divisive actions that leave deep scars for those involved. We are called to be the voice of reason in a not so pretty world. That may require us to lay down our own agenda at times, but if we are willing to love others as we love Christ, we will find whatever we 'lay down' is nothing in comparison to what is gained when we live as peacemakers in this world. Just sayin!

Finding Communion

When others are happy, you should be happy with them. And when others are sad, you should be sad too. Live together in peace with each other. Don’t be proud, but be willing to be friends with people who are not important to others. Don’t think of yourself as smarter than everyone else. (Romans 12:15-16)

Live together in peace. Good idea, but tough to actually execute. We might set out to live at peace with others, finding our attempts at 'peaceful living' are met with resistance from all sides. Try as we might, living 'at peace' with each other is just not possible unless Christ is brought into the center of the 'living'. When Christ is central in the relationship, there will still be difficulties, but there is a power beyond our human reasoning or fickle emotions that helps us to bring resolution to the issues. We need to be willing to listen to one another, but dare I say we also need to be able to hear one another. This is where Christ does his work - he helps us to look beyond the surface (what one displays on the outside) and hear beyond the words (the emotion behind what is said).

As Christ left this earth, he commissioned his disciples to continue his work of reconciling the world to him. In so doing, the disciples encouraged the believers to put away differences, focusing on the unity of the faith. Unity is only possible where God's peace dwells. Plain and simple - we cannot 'create' peace in our own efforts. We will find ourselves always trying to please people if we do. God isn't after 'people-pleasers' - he is after peacemakers. That means we let him guide our thoughts, words, and actions so that we find ways of being a blessing in the lives of others, regardless of their ability or willingness to return the blessing. That might rub a few the wrong way because we have the idea that if we 'do unto others as we would have them do unto us' that they are kind of 'obligated' to return the blessing. Unfortunately, there is no 'obligation' for them to be kind or loving in return.

Pride gets in the way of being peacemakers, doesn't it? We might not realize how much we feel we deserve better than we are getting, but when that attitude begins to creep into our hearts and minds, we are going to lean toward the 'expectation' of kindness and love. Instead of it being a willing exchange between us, there comes this sense of 'obligation'. Obligation leads to unmet expectations, and the hard feelings that follow can soon lead to bitter feelings. This is why God reminds us to share in each other's sorrows and happy times. When we commit together to 'share all things in common', we are putting down our pride and allowing others to get to know us as we are. In so doing, we are developing genuine community. We may not put all our resources in common like they did in the early church, but when we begin to mesh our lives one with another, focusing on Christ first in all we do, we soon find the communion Christ intends for his followers. Just sayin!