Peace. Such an overused word – especially this time of year, and so NOT the norm in our world. This Advent… Ferguson and my 3-year-old’s shrill shrieks of “MINE!” from the next room have left me thinking a lot about what it is to be an agent of Peace.Growing up I always felt small. I was thin – not the wiry kind of thin but the blow-too-hard-and-I-might-fall-over kind of thin. But then I hit a growth spurt, returning to school in 10th grade markedly taller than all my friends. And now, even though I am one inch shy of six feet tall… I still catch myself walking to the front row for group pictures. A part of me is still convinced that I am small.
Perhaps the part of me that is still convinced I’m small is also the same part of me that is convinced I’m not peace-making material. Still stuck in adolescent ideas of what a peace-maker should be, I tell myself, “I’m not calm, I’m not good at smoothing things over, I don’t do well at rolling with the punches, and my highest priority is rarely a wish that everyone would just get along.”
But just as it’s beginning to sink in that my jolly-green-giant self does not belong on the front row of group-snapshots… I’m also starting to own the weight of my responsibility as a peacemaker.
Because here’s the thing. The ultimate manifestation of PEACE is God putting on the squishy skin of a baby. And if you have ever been in a delivery room where there was no access to a spinal block… you understand that this PEACE-making moment couldn’t have been further from calm, peaceful or tranquil. And yet this is how the Prince of Peace showed up.
If I’m going to be an agent of PEACE – there’s a good chance it’s going to require significant risk. God threw His Son into a world that was murdering baby boys by the thousands, and I think twice about sending my child to the neighbor’s house when they’re recovering from a stomach bug.
Far from my adolescent notions, peace-making is less about avoiding conflict and more about throwing ourselves into the very center of the mess. Peace-making is less about protecting comfort zones and more about calling out injustice. Peace-making is less about keeping the peace and more about reconciling relationships. Where are the most broken relationships in my world? Am I willing to risk throwing myself into the middle of them as an agent of peace?
If I’m going to be an agent of PEACE – there’s a good chance I’m going to have to start with humility. Interestingly, humility seems to be the starting place for the incarnation itself. “He who was in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7) That tiny life measured in length, not height, didn’t act like a servant. He took on the very nature of a servant. That is peace-making humility at its best. Opportunities to bring peace – starting with humility – are everywhere. Every moment of every day. Humility to listen, humility to admit I’m wrong, humility to pay attention, humility to lay down my rights, humility to submit. This is the rich soil where peace can take root.
I may not belong on the front lines of the photo – but I am called to be on the front lines of reconciling relationships, redeeming injustice, and taking on the very nature of a servant. It isn’t every day, but when I do find myself living as a peacemaker, I have found it to be about as calm, peaceful and tranquil as a delivery room at 10 cm dilated. It’s loud, and it’s messy. But often it is followed by the most powerful moments of peace, the moment a fragile newborn snuggles in to nurse for the first time. The pain is the precursor to the peace.
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons and daughters of God.”[Matthew 5:9]
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