Fear seems to be a new normal. Probably all of us have experienced it more acutely these last weeks. Fear is an expected response to what we cannot control, understand or tame. It is normal to experience fear, so no judgement here. The thing is, we can’t live in fear. Humans don’t flourish in fear.

As peacemakers, we need to recognize fear blinds us, paralyzes and numbs us.

Yes, we acknowledge the fear and anxieties within us, but we also pray for eyes to see what is happening beyond our uncertainties. To see beyond us and beyond what we can control, requires us to trust. As peacemakers invited to participate in God’s work of restoration, we trust that God is at work. We trust in a God who sees us, loves us and is working to mend the divides within us and our world. However, sometimes it is hard to trust because of the ideas of God we inherited and made ours.  

If the experience we have of God is connected solely to power, then judgment, force, cruelty, control and indifference is probably what occupies our imagination of God. Our fears, in some cases, tend to expose our lack of trust. They are also an invitation to a deeper understanding of God’s love and the story we are invited to live in.  The good news of the story is we shall not fear.  Our God of peace is not a Roman tyrant nor the leader of an Empire. Our God is a servant king who sits on the throne, because he gave his life for the reconciliation of all things. The lion who became the lamb. We are invited, through many voices, not to fear. This is not an escape of the realities of the world, but of a deeper trust in a God who is at work in the world.

As peacemakers, let us renew our vision of what God is doing. This may start with a prayer for a renewed understanding of God. A God who sees, cares, loves sacrificially and is committed to the flourishing and restoration of the whole of creation.