Make me an instrument of your peace

​I just finished listening to a 4-week sermon series on the reconciling heart of God. At the heart of the series was the idea that God has called Christians to be peacemakers, and that is hard to do if we don't have the peace of God living fully in us.

After listening to the series, I think there are two big things that stand in the way of us who are committed to answering that call.

One, I think when it comes to peacemaking, many of us have prioritized internal peace over community peace. There are many things we can do to bring peace to our own lives that do nothing to make peace for others.

Being a peacemaker cannot be done without considering the peace of others. It can't be done without considering the brokenness of others. Rich Hansen says, "Peacemakers work for wholeness wherever human lives are broken, including fighting injustice that keeps people from ever becoming whole."

I think too often we try to create our own internal peace by turning a blind eye to just how much others are struggling. I don't think that's always with evil intent. We are creatures of comfort. Little makes us more uncomfortable than fulling knowing someone else's pain.

I think another thing that stands in the way of being peacemakers is believing it's 'them' who are disturbing the peace and not me. Nothing more stands in the way of God taking up residence in our own hearts - where we need him to truly be peacemakers - than the belief my heart is a better place to live than someone else's heart.

It's hard to be a peacemaker while marching through the world charging everyone else with disturbing your peace.

There's a great prayer from St. Francis of Assisi that I think beautifully cries out one's desire to be a peacemaker:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I 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