#becomingpeacemakers

Thursday I sat on my knees on the living room rug and I cried.

I wrote Abdullah Kurdi’s name on my refrigerator door to remember his family, his wife and two boys who died trying to get to safety and away from the Syrian border.

Sometimes I think God lets us look right into suffering, lets us feel it in our bones, lets the weight of it fall on our hearts and knock the breath out of our lungs.

And then He asks us to decide what to do about it.

We see battles every day.

We see violence and hate and man-killing-man, woman-destroying-woman.

We read about politicians crusading against one another.

We watch religious people cut each other down from behind a computer screen.

The other night I had a dream.

In a room full of fighting, I stood alone at the front, arms outstretched, demanding peace until I ran out of the room sobbing, because these battles we fight against  each other–

they’re killing us, friends.

I believe the world is groaning, as it always has, for a new wave of peacemaking.

Perhaps the world is ready for those peacemakers, and perhaps the world will find them in our children.

Maybe we will find it in the written word, in the song sung, in the stroke of the paintbrush, in humanity reaching out to humanity in love.

These kids in Somalia wrote words of me, too and you’re not alone.

It is possible for us to say those words, too?

In John 15 Jesus said that if we abide in Him our fruit also abides.

If we choose to become active peacemakers as He was, our fruit marks everything it touches with peace.

Peace spreads over humanity and slowly but surely, peace wins.

The barriers break down, freedom songs ring out from shore to shore, and we begin to understand the truth of Kingdom Come.

So, mark a #refugeeswelcome post.

Send a package to refugees through an organization like CARE International (Atlanta friends, this group is right here in our city. Let’s join them).

Light a candle and pray, down on hands and knees, and bring your family along with you.

Because peacemaking is a group effort.

Peacemaking is an effort of humanity.

And peacemaking is a Kingdom effort.

Let’s bring the Kingdom closer, friends, and let’s always welcome the refugees home.