Choosing Peace
peace is a choice and it begins with each one of us. Our actions, our words, our silence, our posts, the things we buy, the things we support, and the force we use as we do these things all lead us closer to or further from peace.
I remembering reading about a man who was tempted by others to begin a violent revolution, but he rejected that. A man who, when sold out for a bag of gold by a friend and arrested, chose to love even his captors. His friends attempted to defend him with violence and weapons and he rebuked them, instead having compassion for those that would harm him. This man underwent torture and violence the likes of which are hard to imagine and yet at the end spoke of forgiveness and love.
peace is hard because it must stand up to violence and hate and intolerance and ugliness without seeking retribution. It often leads to pain and is rarely popular. Weapons are not devices of peace, perhaps of protection, but a thing created to destroy another cannot be a device of peace.
Changing laws and access is part of this movement toward peace, but changing our words and actions will do more. A world that cares well for one another, respects life, and places value on peace will be a world in which we see little need for weapons. If we resort to labeling fellow humans evil, terrorists, ignorant, blind, worthless, expendable, useless, backward, less than, or other then we contribute to a world where violence reigns.
peace is a matter of the heart and if we are heartless with our words and actions we are not agents of peace. We will not be taken seriously and our arguments will fall on deaf ears. I believe our biggest problem is that we use these horrible tragedies to point at others, yell, call names, make the case for change, and get angry for any number of reasons. These things are justified, but they do not go the heart of the problem and nothing ever changes, it just gets worse. We become numb and more divided, more violent.
may I daily do my best to embody revolutionary peace in my thoughts, words, and actions. May I take the hard long road and find others along the way to show more a more excellent way.
I remembering reading about a man who was tempted by others to begin a violent revolution, but he rejected that. A man who, when sold out for a bag of gold by a friend and arrested, chose to love even his captors. His friends attempted to defend him with violence and weapons and he rebuked them, instead having compassion for those that would harm him. This man underwent torture and violence the likes of which are hard to imagine and yet at the end spoke of forgiveness and love.
peace is hard because it must stand up to violence and hate and intolerance and ugliness without seeking retribution. It often leads to pain and is rarely popular. Weapons are not devices of peace, perhaps of protection, but a thing created to destroy another cannot be a device of peace.
Changing laws and access is part of this movement toward peace, but changing our words and actions will do more. A world that cares well for one another, respects life, and places value on peace will be a world in which we see little need for weapons. If we resort to labeling fellow humans evil, terrorists, ignorant, blind, worthless, expendable, useless, backward, less than, or other then we contribute to a world where violence reigns.
peace is a matter of the heart and if we are heartless with our words and actions we are not agents of peace. We will not be taken seriously and our arguments will fall on deaf ears. I believe our biggest problem is that we use these horrible tragedies to point at others, yell, call names, make the case for change, and get angry for any number of reasons. These things are justified, but they do not go the heart of the problem and nothing ever changes, it just gets worse. We become numb and more divided, more violent.
may I daily do my best to embody revolutionary peace in my thoughts, words, and actions. May I take the hard long road and find others along the way to show more a more excellent way.
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