What Makes Peace? 3 – Action

For God’s sake do something.

It’s a pity that this phrase is usually uttered in frustration at someone’s inactivity. Indeed such is it’s dismissive and piqued usage that some put it down as taking the name in vain.

All that is a pity actually because it is the ethos of why peacemakers are active. It is for God’s sake that our faith isn’t just about blogging. It is for God’s sake that our faith isn’t just about gathering on one day of the week to make a whole heap of noise. It is for God’s sake that our faith isn’t just about making requests to God to do this, that and the other.

It’s in the term – peace-making. That’s active. We’re doing something. We’re doing something for His sake. There is a deficit somewhere – we will rectify it. There is a lonely heart – we will be a comfort. There is a hungry soul – we will feed it. There is an impoverished life – we will enrich it with the life of Christ. There are broken relationships – we shall work to see them healed. There are divided communities – we will shine the light of unity in a divisive world and show them there is a way, there is a rule, there is a community, there is a family from different walks of life all made one by the Prince of Peace.

It’s been a privilege in time past to associate with people whose faith was action-packed. What I admired as well was that these were not just active for the sake of it. Their activity wasn’t out of drudgery or obligation. They were clear on the priority of their activity. They invested a great deal of enthusiasm in each task that was infectious. You, as an atheist, agnostic, person of another faith, may not have agreed with their faith, but their commitment to doing right blazed a light of the heavenly Kingdom so brightly it took an effort not to acknowledge it.

Living in the light of such examples motivates and challenges me not to just be a blogger about it. Witnessing these events continues to inform me that the words come before the action and the action reinforces the words. We have good news to share, we have good news to show.

It is not accident that the pivotal book of narrative in the life of the church after Jesus ascended is called Acts. We’re grateful for the sermons, the teachings, the songs and the prayers. We’re grateful for them as long as they stimulate a life lived by the power of the Holy Spirit to – Act.

For God’s sake, do something.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden