What Makes Peace? 2 – Enthusiasm

Hello, my name is Christopher Dryden, I am a peacemaker.

I am also a father of three daughters. The youngest daughter is named Zoe (there should be two dots over the e, but nevertheless). This April she will turn five years old and it’s already a good time to reflect on why she was so named. She has her name because she came at a time where our relationship and family celebrated life. So her name is fitting, because that’s what it means.

It is as though she has the name embedded in her DNA because if there’s one thing that Zoe shows is life. She is not a dozy girl at all. Whatever she does invests her entire being. You can see the glow in her eyes and the sparky nature in her smile. Whether she’s happy and bright, or moody and upset she is full of energy and full of life and it spills over. She makes people laugh with her sparky ways. She is the energiser type who will only be depleted when sleep draws in.

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. (Romans 12:11)

Life is not something that is dreary, dull and onerous. Get me right. There may be some things that are to be done that are done that way, but they don’t have to be done that way. If everything was done that way, it would be a true waste of life. It’s why I am fairly insistent that if we’re called to do something for God, we might as well do it as though we want to do it. If we want to do it, we are unlikely to do it as if it’s a chore and a bore.

I love me some Cherry Bakewell Tarts. You let me have them, I will not consume them with a miserable, bored face. What makes for peace is a similar approach to life and a similar approach to engaging with God’s world and God’s people.

I see God finishing creation and looking at it and saying it is very good. That was a world at peace. Nothing broken, nothing missing, nothing dysfunctional. A characteristic of such a world is joy. That’s a natural response when it’s all good. That means it is a crucial component to what makes for peace – that kind of deep committed, whole-hearted, full-blooded, all-or-nothing engagement in the activity of bringing relationships back under the rule of the Prince of Peace.

I appreciate that this enthusiasm is not always easy to start up and particularly maintain. One of the reasons for that is to be this way in the context of issues that seek to drain you of enthusiasm. Bills to pay, spouse giving grief, children causing angst, work putting the pressure on, living up to people’s expectations. When all of that is taken into consideration it is a wonder people sum up the motivation to keep going in what they refer to as the rat race.

Followers of Jesus, however, go through life with similar issues, but a different perspective and a different foundation from which they build a life to engage with those issues. As such, dependence on the Spirit of God is the engine that motivates a peace-making approach to these issues. They do not deflect from the call and purpose of life. They are the means through which God can be glorified as we see His provision while we enthusiastically engage in His priority.

Enthusiasm won’t look the same for everyone, but its presence will certainly be felt. Like Zoe, the life in the task will be evident to all as we go about making peace in our every day life.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden