Thursday, December 30

McQuote

Peace:
The first thing we need to recover is the knowledge that peace is a result and not a goal. Peace is the result of years in a good relationship. Marriages shaped by love result in peace. Instead of focusing on having a good marriage, a husband and a wife who focus on loving one another will have a marriage of peace. societies that are shaped by justice and love become societies marked by peace. Peace, then, should not be our goal; love is. Love is the hard gritty work; love is the way of the cross that produces peace. When we love, justice and peace bubble up as the results of love. People who want peace but who aren't willing to love will not find peace. People who love find peace, whether they think about it or not.  ~ Scot McKnight, One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow

3 comments:

Ann said...

YES!!!! :D

Phil Davidson said...

I generally agree. But peace, shalom, and harmony are not guaranteed results of love.

Jesus knew this: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" -- Matthew 10:34. This may be another deep paradox of life. (M. Scott Peck said that all great truths are paradoxes, except for the truth that "love makes the world go 'round.")

Carol Noren Johnson said...

Love the hymn which says:
"Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our fev’rish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives thy service find
In deeper rev’rence, praise. . .
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace."

For me, since my husband has Alzheimer's, we have built a relationship where he trusts me so far and we regularly tell each other "I love you."

Carol