San Diego, California, United States First United Methodist Church In Real Life "Peacemakers" by Jan Newton for Friday, 17 October 2014

San Diego, California, United States First United Methodist Church In Real Life "Peacemakers" by Jan Newton for Friday, 17 October 2014
I was fortunate enough to be one of twenty-nine people from First Church to recently visit England and Scotland. We were not deployed as tourists—but as pilgrims—intent upon learning more about our Wesleyan and Christian roots as we began in London, working our way north through England and into Scotland. While on this pilgrimage, we studied the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), taking our time to understand each blessing and promise and bring it to our daily lives as pilgrims.
As I journeyed through this process, the theme of peace and reconciliation became powerfully evident. It wasn’t in one monumental event, but rather in hundreds, even thousands of small moments where I recognized the need to stop, be still, and see God.

One of the most profound days for me was the day when we went to Lindisfarne (often referred to as Holy Island) in Northern England. A day of natural beauty, I was afforded the chance to take a 5-mile walk across the bottom of the North Sea during low tide. At first glance, this may not seem to have anything to do with peace or peacemaking, but I found that the further along I went, the more I felt connected to pilgrims from so many different times and places. I really got to experience walking a mile (or five, as the case may be) in their shoes (which, interestingly enough was actually barefooted). As I got to the midpoint of the walk and could see neither my point of origin or destination, instead of feeling a little freaked out that I was standing on the ocean floor and the tide would be coming in soon, I started to recognize just how AMAZINGLY beautiful it was.
I took the walk along that pilgrim’s path with a renewed sense of awe and appreciation. I found that I wanted to be shaped by the experience and to truly live the words I have been reading and internalizing. I wanted to lack, mourn, be meek, to hunger and thirst so that I can become more pure in my intent to be a TRUE peacemaker. These are words that intellectually make sense, but turning one’s self over to God to be used in love, peace, and reconciliation... that is a leap of faith that until this pilgrimage, I don’t think I fully grasped.
For those of us who came off the walk, felt peaceful, calm, refreshed. The balance of the day was spent on the coach as we travelled into Scotland, many of us reflective and relatively quiet. After several hours of driving, we made an unscheduled stop at Loch Lomand and decided to have an impromptu evening prayer session down at the water’s edge. While sharing our experiences of the day, a swan came up and joined us as one of the group at the same time a rainbow appeared just across the shore from us. These two things are remarkable on their own; together they felt like a very personal and very specific message to each of us. God is here with us, His peacemakers, and His beloved children.

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