Peace is Something We Do

This piece was written in September 2011, shortly after the floods caused by Hurricane Irene.  I could have written it this week. 

At the time, I was especially touched by how our teaching teams of volunteers found ways to put their faith in action, show up every week, and quietly work together behind the scenes.

As much as we wish it wasn't true, we can not protect our children from witnessing destruction, violence, and despair. We must, therefore, counterbalance those images with opportunities to observe, appreciate, and join people working for peace and justice.

Peace is Something We Do

On a cold January day in 2003, my sister and I joined tens of thousands as we marched for peace on the streets of Washington.  Beside me, my sister began the familiar chant, "Tell me what democracy looks like."  "This is what democracy looks like," the crowd answered back. I have often wondered what the response would have been if we had begun the chant with, "Tell me what peacemaking looks like."

If you ask a group of children to draw pictures of what war looks like, they are ready with disturbing details, including death, destruction, and fear. They can also create long lists of the weapons and tools of war.  War is something people do.

Ask them to draw pictures of peace, and you usually get a sunny day filled with trees, mountains, butterflies, and flowers devoid of human inhabitants.  Ask them to describe the tools of peace, and they are stumped.  Yet peace, too, is something people do.

We need to help our children and each other imagine a place for human beings in the drawings of peace.  We all need to learn to recognize that, among the peacemaking tools, we may find shovels, rubber gloves, pencils, calendars, and countless other everyday implements.

In the last few months, we have seen, heard, or taken part in innumerable examples of peacemaking as strangers and friends have helped those affected by the flood muck out, clean up, and sort out the scattered, waterlogged pieces of their lives.  In giving of their time, energy, compassion, and themselves, our fellow Vermonters are working for peace with tools that are as common as trash bags, cleaning supplies, and sweat.

Tools for Peacemaking

Still Life Outside Bethany Church July 2023

In our church, I have also been blessed and encouraged by the simple acts of peacemaking that I've seen as the members of our teaching teams work together toward a common goal.  These people are often meeting for the first time. Yet, they have willingly come together, shifting the schedules of their lives, to collaborate and compromise on lessons, responsibilities, and calendars. This sacred dance of peacemaking is breathtaking to witness.

What are your implements for creating peace... spreading love, hope, life, comfort, and caring...for making manifest our mission statement?  Knitting needles? Cooking spoons? Hammers?  Cleaning cloths?  Sunday school lessons?  What do you use?

Peace is something we do.