On Becoming Peace in a World of War

For most of my life, I’ve worn the identity of an anti-war activist like a badge stitched into my soul. Since the ’90s, that was how I saw myself before almost anything else. After 9/11, I even created a blog (which was fairly popular I might add) called Evolutionary Means, where I shared thoughts under the motto: “Peace is a constant, even as the bombs fall.”

But as the years have gone by, I’ve come to see things a bit differently.

Peace…true peace…is not the constant.

War is.

As sad as my heart is to realize this, this thing that I hate more than anything, war – has always existed in this world of men, and it will exist until the very end. Isn’t it written into the ancient cracks of this broken earth?

Sometimes we try to resist it, to stop the dark and evil depths of the human soul, but the older I get, the more I understand: this world itself is not really ours to control.

It often feels like we are but vanishing whispers on the wind, unseen specks of dust on the back of something so much larger and more terrifying than any of us small people can even fathom.

A beast, if you will, and it devours us without apology. And it’s such a constant, and such a constant background noise, that we are unaware of it. We cannot see the beast that enslaves the world.

But still…still, I believe we are called to become peace…to become like Jesus.

To carry His peace within our hearts. To offer it in our homes. To sing it, speak it, and live it the very best we can …even as the bombs fall. Even when they are falling in our own back yards..

It’s not easy. In fact, it might be the hardest thing of all. But I believe it matters more than anything, to carry the peace of Christ within our hearts..This is what we’re here to do, first and foremost. To go so deep within the heart of Jesus, that we come to embody His peace in a realm where unfathomably dark and evil things exist. Like war.

Even as the world keeps on turning with sorrow and despair, there is true beauty in the soul who chooses gentleness and peace. Who chooses love. Who chooses Jesus.

Even now, especially now, I want to be that soul, childlike in my trust in God, and full of His Peace, even as the bombs fall.

Praying for peace in the hearts of all men and women.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen