Blessed are the Peacemakers (Part 2)

Contributed by Dr. Trish Hall, Center for Spiritual Living, Metro

The International Day of UN Peacekeepers is May 29.  In this two-part series, Dr. Trish Hall explores the concepts of peacekeeping and peacemaking, and the importance of “being peace” in our world.

In the days following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, called on members of his church and the people of the world to become peacemakers.

Nelson declared, “The path to becoming a peacemaker is often misunderstood. We too often focus on outward behaviors rather than the principles of peacemaking. Peacemaking is a quest that will test the best within us.”

Many peacekeepers and peacemakers are pacifists – people who believe that war and violence are unjustifiable.  Peacemakers and peacekeepers share a single purpose: to create a world that works for all.  How they approach achieving their shared goal of Peace is different.  Both are needed as we grow human understanding.

Peacekeepers tend to focus on controlling behaviors.  They do their utmost to maintain critical balance to prevent new hostilities. Peacekeeping is often frustratingly temporary as Nelson pointed out: “It controls surface behavior without solving the underlying issues that ignite anger, contempt, and distrust.” 

Peacemakers seek to go beyond containment to unearthing the causes that burst forth as war, domestic assaults, race-riots, and gang violence. Through in-depth conversations into potentially volatile topics, mediation, negotiation and education they work to change outward behaviors from the inside by expanding understanding and building new relationships.

Both require:

Self-awareness – What is the state of your inner being?  Are you peace, not just peaceful?  Start your self-discovery by sitting quietly, allow your thoughts to slow down and become totally present with yourself.  Release your engagement with your external and internal environment.  What are you sensing? Draw Peace into your awareness.  Sense Peace.  Continue to be peaceful, affirm “I am Peace.”

Keen Alertness – Both our internal and external worlds are subject to anxiety and strife.  We must be sensitive to what we are experiencing: Is it coming from our personal history?  Is the current environment awakening old, unresolved issues?  Are we taking on the emotions around us?  To be present, alert observers, we must not get enmeshed in circumstances.  We must differentiate intuitively in the moment, what is stemming from our internal world and what is originating externally.  This may seem tricky.  How can we deeply sense what is going on, without engagement and assess without interpreting, judging, or projecting?

It all begins in consciousness. We must challenge ourselves, clarify our convictions and honestly assess why we identify ourselves as peace people.  What is it that is calling us to embrace being a stand for peace as our personal responsibility – to show up as Peace?

Next, we discern Divine Guidance and invite it to inform us as to how we are to be.  Whether you engage in fervent plenary prayer, follow a practice of visioning, use the powerful practice of affirmative prayer or any other form, do what is yours to do to open to the Divine, open to the wisdom of the One Creator, listen to and glean guidance from Spirit.

Lastly, we must clearly, courageously do what Spirit within has decreed.  Many of us have “heard a call,” even felt it deeply, and then let it fade.  “Life got in the way.”  Whether in prayer circles, meditation groups, uplifting individuals or being a mighty voice that can enroll others in changing how our populations relate to one another, we are the only ones that can shift the consciousness of our world in our particular way.

You may not realize your own importance or may question how what you do could possibly have any effect on much of anything, yet as Dr. Margaret Wheatley said, “One of the things we need to learn is that very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care.  Forget about the politics … What are the things that you really have deep, abiding concern for?  What is it you really have some passion for?  If you go into that question for yourself, you will find the energy to go forward.”  You will undoubtedly attract others who share your concerns. By asking crucial questions, you set change in motion, you unveil hidden limiting beliefs at their root, reveal pivotal misunderstandings and discover new possibilities.

Immerse yourself in the sensations of being a peace person – of letting the world know what you are by your presence, your words and actions.  You are Peace.

Feel the vibrancy of being fully engaged as Peace.  See and feel making a difference in your own unique way.  You are Peace.

Well … don’t just sit there … Be it!  Do it! 

Start right now, in this new, now, present moment!  Be a Peace Presence.  

Remember:  Everything you do matters!

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writers and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.