Peace Be Still

This blog is a follow up to my previous blog that I titled "The Haven of Rest."

In that blog I shared the words of a poem/chorus of a song. For those who did not read that blog, the words were,

Where will I find rest for my weary soul, When "ever" will I be completely whole; When will I be surrounded by beauty sublime, And lay down my heavy head and sleep with peace of mind.

My poem/song has two verses to go with the chorus. The first of these two verses reads,

Conflict rages on from the left to the right, While the chasm in the center slowly sinks out of sight; The crescendo of the ideology and rhetoric rises to a deafening roar, While truth perishes from the earth as it has so many times before.

When you closely examine the words of the chorus of my song, it's easy to see how conflict is the inevitable result of the situation depicted. When our souls are weary and long for rest, when we feel fragmented and disjointed, when everything around us is repulsive to our sight and breaks our hearts, there is no way not to be conflicted. The first verse that I shared depicts this conflict.

The partisan divide that separates our world and place us in conflict with each other is often represented by the right and the left.

In my opinion, these are little more than ideological, political labels which often do not get to the substance of who we are or what we really believe. They have produced a dangerous intensity and sometimes hatred between people, even family members and professing Christians.

This intense stance is alarming because it has led to broken relationships, violence and other destructive behavior.

I believe that many people, even some among the combatants are weary of this conflict. This weariness has led some to seek a center where people can come to a place of resolution and understanding. Unfortunately, these efforts by those in the center have not yielded many productive results. Despite good intentions, this chasm in the center slowly sinks out of sight.

It will take more than ideology and rhetoric to impact the hostility and conflict that is erupting in our world today.

Ideological positioning is a futile deception that leaves its adherents disappointed and disillusioned.

Allow me to illustrate. What is the reality of a person standing on a railroad track in the path of a speeding train? The reality is that the person standing in front of the train would be crushed and die. Where the person stood on the track would make little difference in surviving the impact of the train. Those who choose a left position could sneer at those on the right and send a barrage of negative accusations and comments their way. Those who choose to position themselves on the right could tell the ones positioned on the left that they were pinky-eyes socialist who are devoid of common sense and have no love for God or their country.

You could also have a group who chastised both the ones positioned on the left and those positioned on the right. They could describe themselves as peacemakers and say that the position of safety and survival when confronting a speeding train is in the center. If only the left and the right moved to the center, the speeding train would be rendered harmless. When facing a speeding train, there is no safe position for the human body.

What is the solution? The solution is to recognize and acknowledge reality and allow reality to dictate the truth to us. As I wrote in the verse to my song, truth is perished from the earth as it has so many times before.

Where do we find reality and thus find truth?

The answer is in the Bible, the word of God. The Book of James is known for its practicality. It addresses many real-life situations and gives us God's answers and solutions to the situations.

James addresses the problem of conflict and division in James 4. Many of the things that are raging in our world today and are at the center of our conflicts are addressed in the first three verses of this chapter.

"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:1-3).

When we see the wars raging in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and the situation that exist at the borders of our country, it is very obvious that we need help that can reach beyond the surface and penetrate to the depths of the human heart.

When we see and hear those elected to serve in congress enter into heated verbal arguments that lead them to threaten each other and issue challenges to interrupt the proceedings to engage in a physical fist fight, it is obvious that our conflict have risen to a dangerous and dysfunctional level.

This is exactly the help that James prescribes in these verses.

Over the course of my life, if I am honest, I have to say that if and when I found myself in conflict, especially within, the source of my conflicts was often much more internal than external. I first needed to look inside.

I pray that as individuals and a nation, we will look inside and examine why we are conflicted and where our conflicts come from.

Understanding that only reality is a depiction of the truth and then being willing to respond to the reality before us, it the place to start.

If we come to God with the right desires and pure motives, surely, He will help us.

Lord, let it be! And let it begin in me!