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Live in peace

OIP-9

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone … Hebrews 12:14

This is a very broad blanket statement. There are no qualifications and no exceptions. “Live in peace with everyone” is all inclusive. It includes enemies, strangers, atheists, people of all races and religions, immigrants, and that neighbor of yours who loves to pick a fight on just about anything! At a time when there is so much enmity, we need to focus on peace.

Live in peace with everyone. That means you may have to eat some crow, even if you were right, just to maintain the peace. There are other things more important than being right, though a lot of people today would have a hard time coming up with what that might be. Peace would be one of those things. “Make every effort to live in peace.” That sounds like working very hard to reach across barriers of all kinds. This doesn’t mean you always give in for the sake of peace, but it means you consider the cost and decide if the hill you’re about to die on is worth it.

The first Thanksgiving, though it has been mythologized beyond recognition, still represents in our collective memory a group of enemies enjoying a shared meal around the same table. And as we do the same tomorrow, there will undoubtedly be  people around your table not on the best terms with each other. Sometimes families can be the most brutal. But let’s make every effort to be at peace with one another and discover the bond that is possible because of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And let’s be grateful for the good things we enjoy even in these difficult times. And may we make every effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and how we might encourage one another to love and good deeds.

Make peace with someone today that you might have something to give thanks for tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

6 responses to “Live in peace”

  1. Toni Petrella

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and Catch family. Ours is quiet with me and spouse and our dog Bear. I called my daughter today and my brother. I will call my mom tomorrow and a close relative. I am thankful we still have folks we call on special days like tomorrow and cannot say enough about our Lord and Savior that we always should be thankful that he came into our lives and thankful one day for a better life not of this world. Take care, God Bless, and have a great Thanksgiving.

    Reply
  2. bobnearseattle

    If your desire for Peace – True Peace – is genuine, may I share and offer up this prayer written by Dr. Tracy Wenger Sadd (Church of the Brethren):

    God,
    Whose holy mountain is a house for all peoples
    Whose Spirit told the Hebrew prophet
    Of a day
    When the lion and the lamb
    will lie down together
    when humankind will study war no more,

    This is a day
    when we join
    with voices echoing through the ages to say: “Dona nobis pacem.”
    Grant us peace.

    Yet, Lord, we must confess our complicity
    in the ceaseless and senseless violence of this world.
    We have believed tempting lies which are the enemies of peace:
    that good fences make good neighbors,
    that our unexamined sectarianism is the only truth,
    that our passivity is a noble pacifism,
    that our tolerance could never be a mask for indifference or quiet condescension,
    that we are not controlled by a paralyzing social fear,
    that a low-risk short term strategy can take the place of long-term commitment,
    that our actions toward one generation will be forgotten by the next,
    that peace is a political cause,
    rather than an orientation
    toward all of life.

    God of all who have ever been despised, oppressed, or repressed
    Whose dream for the universe and its galaxies unknown
    is greater even than we can imagine,
    Forgive us,
    and renew in us a holy reverence
    for the world and all its creatures – each one a part of Your divine symphony –
    from the tranquility of the birdsong
    to the laughter of the child
    to the roiling and rolling
    of the thunderstorm.

    Help us to find – in the midst of the anxieties, threats, and fears of living –
    glimpses of of the ineffable oneness of all things
    experienced by mystics of all times and places
    who have sought You unrelentingly.

    God whom some have called
    An infinite sphere
    Whose center is everywhere
    Whose circumference – nowhere
    Make us mindful of the boundless opportunities
    to build bridges across borders
    to collaborate on common ground.
    Give us courage to take risks in both thought and innovative action.
    Empower us with the knowledge
    that we walk in the footsteps of the multitude of generations
    who understood the cost
    of confronting injustice
    of including the outsider
    of serving the enemy
    of resisting the sword.

    Lord, who can accomplish more than we can ever ask,
    Consecrate us to be the living incarnation
    of Your shalom,
    the blessed peacemakers of the third way
    following Jesus, the Prince of Peace,
    who is our peace.

    Sustain us with a blissful confidence
    in Your illimitable love for us and for all creation.
    Grant us hearts and souls that remain unconquered.
    Make us tireless ambassadors of reconciliation
    who will not be satisfied
    until righteousness and peace
    are realized on this earth
    as they are in Heaven.

    Amen.

    Reply
    1. jwfisch

      Thanks, Bob, for this thoughtful and challenging call.

      Reply
  3. Mark Dennis Seguin

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and all of the Catch family.

    Reply
  4. Sandie

    Many times I’ve gone about being ‘right’ in the ‘wrong’ way. By being neglectful in remembering to respect the person/persons in a situation, I’ve lost my effectiveness as a believer. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, who hits me with a spiritual 2×4 to show my error(s). That gives me the opportunity to go back and build up what I’ve torn down. It makes me human and reachable, thereby making Jesus reachable. Happy day after Thanksgiving.

    Reply
    1. jwfisch

      How true. Thank you, Sandie.

      Reply

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