The Peace We Long For: Advent in Disorienting Times | Day 10

Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

It can be quite disorienting when people, in the name of “peace,” resort to retaliatory and violent means. Phrases like “fight fire with fire” or “hit back when someone hits you” may seem justifying and even rational. However, violence is never a good metaphor, nor is it a suitable outcome for achieving peace, wholeness, and healing at the expense of another human being, the land, or creation.

The call in this text is to be what we already are. Our hearts are moved towards peace and love. It is who we are, and it is the sense of our being. 

Richard Rohr says it this way, “Love is not something we decide to do now and then. Love is who we are! Our basic, foundational existence—created in the image of the Trinity—is love.” 

The muscle that we continue to strengthen, especially in times of strife, struggle, and disorientation, is to get our bearings on who we are. And who we are is love. The path that we walk is one where we continue to strive to get better and better at fostering love in a world that does not need more strife but more people willing to take the risk of love and peace.