November 30–Making Room for Peace

It is harder and harder to make room for peace these days, for peace always comes at a price.

Yes, our world’s politicians find peaceful solutions difficult because compromise is always costly.

Yes, we find it hard to make peace with our neighbors because sharing responsibility is always expensive.

And yes, making peace with God requires sacrifice, too. We must give up our control, our pride, our unwillingness to change.

When the infant son of Mary and Joseph came into this world, He came with a price tag, too. The Prince of Peace cost a human life and a divine risk of love.

When we pray for peace today, let’s pray that God gives us the courage to pay the price for that peace, whether it is admitting that we may have been wrong, that our country has been wrong, that our world has been wrong.

Then let’s build a world of peace that begins with Jesus’ own words, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”

Only then will the peace we all long for become real in our hearts.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

—Stephanie

November 29–Making Room for Peace

Self reflection has always been a helpful tool for me and, I would surmise for most.  It causes one to look inwardly; in doing so, that initiates pause.  During this Advent season I urge each of us to think of ways by which we can promote and emulate a peaceful presence.  

Here in the United States of America and abroad there are many preparing to celebrate in some form or fashion the Advent season.  Although some of our neighbors, such as those in third world countries are at a distance, they still remain our neighbors.  The common denominator if one holds to the Christian belief….we are all made in the image of God; no matter one’s ethnicity and/or religious practice.  Therefore, making room for peace with everyone should be our intentional goal during this season and always.  

In anticipation of our Lord and Savior, it would disservice us and others not to model a posture of the fruit of the spirit that Paul reminds us of in Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.” 

Let this be a season that you become intimate with God…in doing so those with whom you have previously had difficulty making room for peace… it is my prayer that God’s Spirit enables you to do so with love, grace and His Spirit gives you peace that surpasses all understanding.  May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 

Inetta Taylor—Boomers

November 28–Making Room for Peace: Revision & Growth

Parque de la Paz, Managua

1st Draft: The “Old Man at the Bridge” by Ernest Hemingway, an image seared in my heart 40 years ago—the constant stream of refugees of war—How many streams more?

2nd Draft: Highway One, Vietnam. Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a 9 year old girl, naked, burned, screaming, running, just running—Disposable Children—How many more?

3rd Draft: My own history with guns, Lubbock Gun Show, Managua’s Parque de la Paz—guns encased in concrete—How many of the other do we have to kill to feel safe?

4th Draft: 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Non-fiction—Mark Kurlansky’s Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea.  How many more wars before we not only grasp the essence of the Gospel, but muster the courage to live it?

For those of my generation and older, the photo, and perhaps the short story will ring familiar. For the younger generation, both may be new. For most all of us, the 3rd and 4th will be new. There is a photo of the park in Managua and a list of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that bear witness to the enduring vision of peace.

Jim Hill – Homebuilders

November 27–praying for peace at christmas

peace

is the absence of conflict;

or

peace

is a spiritual connection;

or better still

peace

is a way of living,

a commitment to something important;

but

peace

as a wild eyed radical

screaming its way

to revolution

isn’t quite the peace

we had in mind….

is it?

we light a candle for peace.

—Kathrine Hawker

 

Peace doesn’t always seem to come in the packages we expect.  Who would have thought it possible the cries of a newborn rising from a stable in a relatively unknown village would bring peace?  Would anyone have dreamed this same child, now a grown carpenter, would walk out to meet his friends on a storm ravaged sea—bringing with him peace?   Or a brush against the bottom of his cloak would bring peace to a woman tormented for years by a debilitating illness?  Or words spoken to the criminal dying on a cross next to him would bring such peace?

Peace doesn’t always seem to come in the packages we expect.  This advent season, may the grace of God allow us to experience peace…even in the unexpected.  In the harrowed hustle and bustle of being a family.  The waves of the world that threaten to drown.  The illnesses.  Even death.

 Through it all, may we hear the whispered, “Peace, be still,” of our creator.

 —Nick

Making Room!

Advent is a time of preparation…  Preparing for the arrival of the Christ child.  Everyone prepares for different things…in different ways.  This year, Second B has designed an Advent Devotional Series written by members of the church.  Each of the authors is at a different place in life…and has a different perspective to offer.  Our theme this year is Making Room.  Please join us as we clear our lives…Making Room for Peace, Hope, Joy and Love.  The series will begin the first Sunday of Advent, November 27.