My Year of Peace

Over a year ago, I took a personality profile that told me I was a "peaceful" person. It really had me completely pegged, all of my strengths and weaknesses. Since then, I think I have been coming to terms with the idea. I think that in the past I have been hesitant to embrace my peacefulness because we live in a culture that frankly does not value peace, nor is it seen as a masculine quality. Well, our culture is wrong about a lot of things, and this is yet another one to add to the list. I am a peaceful man. I have always been most at home when I have been at peace, but part of me has always resisted, and far too often I have settled for temporary peacekeeping rather than peacemaking.

Over the last week, I have heard God calling me to peace. The Diversity Club on campus has made "waging peace" their theme for the year, and on Tuesday, they invited me to join them to speak about my visit to the Peace Palace in Den Haag this summer. I felt honored to be there, and their words challenged me to think about my own pursuit of peace. I am at my best when I am at peace. I have learned this about myself, so it really makes sense that I should seek to "wage peace" around me. I am not sure exactly what it will look like yet, and I kicked off the week by posting a sarcastic political remark on my Facebook page (clearly I have some work to do). So this is my challenge, to "wage peace" for this next year.

I started my day today reading in my "Year Bible," and I came across this verse: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." I think those are good words of encouragement for me as I start this new phase of my journey.