Peace is Not the Absence of War
Is the U.S. at war right now? I think the official answer is no, but it doesn’t feel very peaceful to me. There’s certainly no peace in our political world, and you don’t have to look far in most neighborhoods to find disharmony. Every family seems to have some kind of drama going on, and only a few of the people I know have abiding peace in their hearts.
Just as the absence of hate is not love, the absence of war is not peace. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom,” which according to my friend Dave, means “to be wholly unified with God and others.”
Peace is a choice. When I trust God . . . I mean really trust Him with the outcome of whatever is bothering me, my peace returns. I am “wholly unified” with Him because I’ve submitted my will to His. Whatever He lets or makes happen is okay by me.
Peace requires action. When I choose to trust God with whatever is stealing my peace, He immediately restores my peace. I might have to do this a hundred times in a day, but He’s always there, and the peace always returns, at least until my mind wanders back to my worries.
And what about the “and others” part?
That requires action too.
We are responsible for our behavior . . . for what we say and do. Not anyone else’s. Just ours. When we mess up (or when someone accuses us of messing up), it’s up to us to seek unity . . . to apologize and ask for forgiveness. It takes a lot of humility to say I’m sorry, especially when we don’t really think we were wrong or at fault or we think what we said or did was justified. Sometimes, it takes even more humility to accept someone else’s apology. When we let them off the hook, we lose our leverage. But if we truly want shalom, it’s up to us to humbly do all we can to be in unity with others.
Scripture: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)
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Responses (3)
Yes the US is at war . Since 2001 We are killing people in the middle east and Africia every day and they are trying to kill our service people every day.
I think Jesus is pretty disappointed in mankind no matter where you live and is even more reason we need him in our lives.
Regi & Miram ~
Your article is so timely, the country is in the midst of political and military war with ourselves and other nations. While the wars in the Middle East have dragged on for 19 years are internal war is less lengthly. But the end result in both is tragic, senseless and debilitating for our nation and individually as Americans.
Our Nation Cemeteries and our internal population is suffering from Republican vs Democrat political views and our nightly news media is continually ‘re-opening the scabs “. If ever there were a time to gather for pray to the Almighty ~ probably even tonight would not be too soon.
Same as Oswald Chambers today. Same verse, that is.