Peace Out part 3
I know, I know, they're all my favorite. But this is legit one of my favorite Bible verses: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). And, interestingly enough, this is the only verse in the KVJ that uses the word "peacemakers." Which, by the way, is number 1518 in Strong's Greek Concordance and means, "pacificatory, that is, (subjectively) peaceable: - peacemaker." And the key there, to me, is peaceable. Because you can't give what you don't have. If you want to MAKE peace, you must first HAVE peace. That's why I focused on Jesus being our peace. Focused first on the truth that while we may have tribulation in this world, we can be of good cheer. Life happens every single day. BUT even in the midst of that tribulation, we can have peace. Because the fire in us is always hotter than the fire we're in. Here's the part I really like though: "For they shall be called the children of God." To me, this is kind of the same thing as, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Because, to me, being called a child of God is the same thing as being identified as a child of God. Or, remember how I always talk about telling people about God without even saying "God"? It's not about people saying, "Tom's a Christian." It's about people knowing what I'm about. Knowing that I love them. That, to me, is what we should strive for. Being known as a good person. An honest person. Someone who has your back. Someone who will lay their life down for you. That, to me, is what it means to be called a child of God. To be known as a disciple of Christ. And, quite frankly, I'm not worried if people know that I'm a pastor or not. I generally don't tell people that. Unless they ask. In the same way that I don't try to force my opinion on people. Unasked for advice is unwanted advice. If people come to me, that's different. But I'm not getting all worked up about what people do. I think that being peaceful is the best thing I can do. If you're not helping, you're hurting. Right? And sometimes staying out of the way is the best way to help. Because sometimes people have to make their own mistakes. Travel their own journey. And, as a parent, that can be hard. Sometimes I just want to, like Jesus said, pull my kid in under my wings and make sure nothing bad ever happens to him. But I know that doing so would probably make sure nothing good ever happens to him either. It's my job to train him up in the way he should go... and then let him go. To make sure he can handle things... and then let him handle them. And I'm telling you, when you don't stress out about every little thing... you're so much more peaceful. And, the whole point of today's Rant, when you're peaceful... you're a peacemaker. You can sometimes make things better just with a calm, peaceful presence. You can sometimes make peace just by being peaceful. If everybody is panicking, but you're not... sometimes that can help other people stop panicking. You can spread joy by being joyful. You can spread love by being loving. And you can spread peace by being peaceful!