2 posts tagged “peace”
"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Heaven is not a place name. Heaven is
wherever God’s will is being done. When, occasionally, it is done on earth, then there is
heaven. It is the most difficult thing in the world for most of us to give up directing our
own story and turn to the Author. This has to be done over and over again every day.
Time and again I know exactly how a certain situation should be handled, and in no
uncertain terms I tell God how to handle it. Then I stop, stock-still, and (sometimes with
reluctance) end by saying, “However, God, do it your way. Not my way, your way.
Please.”
Madeleine L’Engle, Glimpses of Grace
Pastor Joe Hensley relates the following story about a soldier, a soldier in the Israeli army.
“One day he was on patrol in an area of occupied Palestine when he felt a rock strike him in the back. Before he had a chance to turn around, another rock had struck him in the shoulder, then another hit his helmet.
“He whirled around, his rifle ready to fire. In his sights were several Palestinian children. Children. They were picking up more stones to throw at him. The soldier did not want to fire, but he could not allow them to attack him again.
“Suddenly, he had an idea. He bent down and picked up three of the rocks. He picked them up and began to juggle. Yes, juggle. The children were mesmerized and forgot about their stones. The soldier did a few tricks, and the children laughed. Then he did a grand finale, and they applauded. He took a bow and walked away.
“No, that soldier did not end the war with his action. But he took what had been hurled as weapons and transformed them into objects of wonder. He took a broken moment and made it whole with the laughter of children. That moment revealed God’s shalom.”
It’s not likely that that soldier was a Christian, but he knew something about the peace of God, the same peace we believe Jesus the Christ came to bring us and to give us in his death and resurrection. Hensley continues: “Christ took the cross, a tool of torture and death, and transformed it into a symbol of salvation. Christ took death and transformed it into life. Christ took our despair and turned it into hope. He took our sins and juggled them before our eyes that we might forget our hatred and focus on his power and love.”
—epiphanydc.org/sermons/sermon_2006_04_23_Hensley.pdf. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
