Skip to main content

 

Holding space for peace

Not too long ago, at her Christian private school in Madison, Wisconsin, a 15yr old girl shot two people to death and took her own life. How did a young girl arrive at such a tragic place in life? what turmoil drove her to inflict such pain on herself and those around her? What pushes us towards violence? Why is there so much violence around us?

Violence is groomed. And every act of violence has a history.

As such, local and national news were abuzz with headlines about the tragedy, trying to analyze the life and circumstances of the young woman. And thus ensued the unfortunate cycle of panic, bewilderment, finger pointing, and blame game while mourning a senseless tragedy! We have become a helpless society embroiled in the chaos of violence. How can we take individual responsibility as citizens of an embroiled community? Maybe we can start by taking accountability of our own lives.

The basic definition of violence is behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something (Oxford Dictionary). Simply put, cycles of life that propagate hurt and damage over and over again have the tendency to breed violence. Regardless of how far removed they may seem, incidences of violence and injustice should caution us to take personal inventory of how we are doing emotionally and mentally. It should be an opportunity to check in with our loved ones as well. I remember when George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight in 2020, the restraints of the pandemic forced us to confront our history as a society. Thus, restraining the demands of an hyperactive culture might lessen our desensitization to internal unrest.  

Despite all the chaos, peace is available to us and peace can be cultivated.

Peace must first be cultivated within. In a world where there is so much going on, unless we find ways to pace ourselves, it is easy to get caught up in all the confusion. If so, what restraints can we put in place to diffuse the distractions that keep us frazzled? I believe holding space for peace is important and possible. For the rest of this year, I hope to ponder and share ways to hold space for peace, starting with our personal peace.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It starts with me

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid - John 14:27 It is common to say a place is peaceful, especially quiet and isolated places. We often associate quiet with peace. As an introvert, this line of thought is even more elevated for me. Subconsciously, it is easy to mistake quiet for peace, quiet people as peaceful people, and quiet places as peaceful places. If only it were so. For example, intensive care units tend to be quiet on the surface while it could be filled with pain and unease . On the other hand there is the example of Jesus, who lived peaceably with one of his closest friends even though He knew Judas was going to betray Him. How was Jesus able to hold His peace under such circumstances? I remember a tumultuous season in my life when everything in the physical seemed hopeless. I remember  praying earnestly that God would give me peace in the midst of my hopel...
Post a Comment
Read more

In perfect peace

  You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You,  Because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3 When someone dies, we comfort ourselves by saying, "may their soul rest in perfect peace" We assume that death or exit from this life promises perfect peace, signaling a general consensus that everyone faces troubles in this life, regardless of privilege or age. Even when people's lives look all rosy from outside, the truth is, we may not know the battles they face in secret. Individuals, relationships, families, marriages, and communities of peoples all go through different upheavals. It is part of life. As established in a previous blog, peace is not the absence of trouble but rather a way of being. Peace is a consciousness rather than an event. Better yet, there is a promise of perfect peace for this lifetime. That is, we don't have to be dead and buried before enjoying perfect peace. I could make bold to say that how we embody peace in this lifetime is a...
Post a Comment
Read more