Romans 12:2 and sowing seeds for peace with an insight, an observation and a prayer

Today I am letting you in on an ongoing struggle that I have had with myself these many years. Thanks for listening in on my internal conversation.

SCIPTURE: Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

INSIGHT SHARED BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR:
This fragile looking gospel of suffering love looks absurd next to the offerings of the world – where atomic energy, mighty armies, vast industrial systems when totaled together add up to the sum which would indicate the final security and thus the final solution. But like the standing priest who repeatedly offers the endless line of sacrifices to our present sins, the world has been offering the same solutions to our very human predicament since the beginning of time with little results. When will we listen to another voice – the voice of the Lamb.

After the Berlin Wall came down and after the Iron Curtain was ripped to shreds a hand painted sign was observed propped up against a shuttered East German church. It simply read: The Lamb Wins!

AN OBSERVATION ... STRUGGLE:
It is just too easy to give into the conventional wisdom of today and go along with the majority way of thinking, such as kill the terrorists, hunt them down, get them before they can attack us again. It is just too easy to lump all Muslims together and declare them and their faith as evil, mean spirited, deadly, hate filled. It is just too easy to buy into the old way of think of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.

But what does this gain us?

The world has been down this very path that even the historians have a hard time keeping track. As the old adage states: Might doesn’t make right. Just because we have the power doesn’t mean that we should exercise it. Just because someone has done/shown an evil in our direction doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, mean that we “get back”.

This turning the other cheek stuff is hard … absolutely, painfully, challenging hard! We could scream: It’s not fair! And we would be right. It isn’t fair, but God didn’t call us into a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ so that things would become fair … and everything in the world would automatically become peaceful and tranquil.

God called us into this relationship to lead … to show them there is another way … a better way … to help others understand that there is only one way for lasting peace. It is the way of the Lamb.

We have tried it the worldly way – we have conformed to the world’s standards … so, why not try it God’s way by first allowing our minds, hearts and souls to be transformed by God’s power. And then, who knows, maybe the East German sign against the boarded up church would become a reality for the entire world … THE LAMB WINS!

PRAYER by Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.