Planting Peace

Prior to my arrival at EMU two years ago, I knew what I was getting myself into. I'd decided to concentrate on Bible and Religion and also immerse myself into whatever peace studies I could. I was a recovering fundamentalist with a deep passion to study the Bible and theology in ways which would give me more authoritative grounds upon which to base my new-found pacifist convictions. What better an environment to do this than at EMU, right?

I'm not so sure of this now. It's rare anymore for me to walk out of a class with hope that someday this world will be peaceful and whole. Instead, I am usually brought to an utter, almost insane level of hopelessness. And as soon as I accept that reality, I'm reminded that there is a Christian Peace Witness in D.C. this weekend.

I envy those who still have the capacity to muster up enough hope to travel to D.C. to witness to an administration that won't listen to you. While you are witnessing, they will probably be designing new propaganda to convince Americans to fear Iran. It's sad, yet unfortunately close to the truth. It's my belief at this point that if freedom is going to overcome domination and peace is going to overcome violence then it must start from the ground up. The simple reality is that we are the problem. Before we are comfortable with going to the Christian Peace Witness, we need to accept the fact that we will only end up protesting against ourselves. I hate the war, but I don't love the people of Iraq enough to start riding my bike everywhere and live under the poverty line to avoid war taxes. Maybe I'm the only one; my hunch is that I'm not.

If you want to see peace and justice, love your neighbor as Christ called you to. Love the people you are closest to as deeply as you can. Love the person who sneaks into your church service and sits alone in the back. Give somebody some hope that someone cares about them in their own community. Before you seek a protest to speak out against an international conflict headed by nihilist elites, look yourself in the mirror and ask how your life is speaking. I don't disagree with protests and peace witnesses, but actions speak louder than words, and our actions are something of a whisper. I say this because I have come to learn that only hope and the desire to love others foster peace. We need to get back into the habit of starting small by planting seeds of goodness which will grow into real peace over time. Creating peace doesn't begin and end with a protest or a peace witness driven by our anger and frustration toward our government which has betrayed us in many ways. It begins with our everyday lives as we attempt to love those in and out of our community, those closest to us, and those who we may run into on the sidewalk. I suggest we re-evaluate our motives and discern whether or not we have the ability to truly love those beside us as Christ commanded, before we ask our militaristic nation to do the same.