Building peace means sometimes being uncomfortable. It requires listening to the other side with respect and being civil when telling others about your beliefs. Peace often means compromise, allowing differences to exist side by side. This can be uncomfortable and it can also be freeing and expansive.

Agree with Me

Many proverbs tell us that this diversity worth perusing: “united we stand, divided we fall” (Aesop); “alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” (Helen Keller); and “diversity our strength,” the motto of the City of Toronto (soon to be my home).

I was recently shaken by a discussion with someone about interdenominational Christian nonprofits. He works for a non-denominational organization but was concerned about working with Spirit in Action because I didn’t agree with his interpretation of a particular bible verse. That he wanted to limit his interactions based on beliefs, albeit sharing the foundation of our mutual Christian faith, shocked me.

I understood that for him, to “agree to disagree” on a point of faith would necessarily mean compromise and, therefore, loss; that this compromise of beliefs would make a group weaker. However, I have found that requiring everyone to agree on specific, narrow rules does not bring strength. Welcoming multiple views breeds flexibility and trust, rather than shutting conversation down with only one way to view things.

Diversity our Strength

SIA local coordinators from all over Africa sing together in Kenya

The strength of Spirit in Action is bringing people together from many different traditions for a higher good overall rather than separating people along dogmatic lines.

In fact, our missions of compassion and social justice require us to see God in all people and to serve our neighbor as we serve God. This also frees us all to do our work of fostering prosperity, rather than spend energy forcing people to believe a specific doctrine. This openness then actively encourages personal exploration of each person’s relationship and path with God.

When I visited SIA partners in Malawi last summer, I asked about the variety of denominations represented in the group. “SIA is the one place where Catholics and Protestants come together,” was the answer I got from Canaan Gondwe, the local Small Business Fund Coordinator. This response brought a sense of pride. Inter-denominational collaboration allows each person to respond to the call to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God, rather than the call to shun those who are different.

Similarly, Benoit Malenge, the Small Business Fund Coordinator in Rwanda, reported that people of many beliefs came together, “sharing a meal, without discrimination since they are all members of Spirit in Action, who came to share the gifts.” This place of openness brought a community together, beginning to build peace after years of war in the area.

In the end, let’s stay focused on our mission, remembering the words of John Comenius, a 17^th century philosopher, “Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.” Can we be comfortable with this, and proceed as the peacemakers we were called to be?

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105 years ago this Sunday, on July 17th 1906, Del Anderson was born in San Francisco amidst the rubble and destruction from the 1906 earthquake and fire.

“It seems that he was an incredible man who lived a very purposeful life to the end,” remarked Chingwell Mutombu of First Step Initiative, who recently learned about Del’s life and service through Spirit in Action. Indeed, Del was active in his prayer life and letter writing, with a goal to send several letters each day, until he left this earth in 2008.

Just before his 100th birthday, Del and his wife, Lucile, wrote, “both of us have discovered in our own ways that our desires today are to be more open to who we truly are, and knowing that, to be more loving, more caring, more understanding, less critical, and more accepting of ourselves and others. This is OUR way of growing peace in the world.”

Del and his first wife, Bebe, who died of cancer in 1972.

This week, to honor Del’s birthday I repeat his 100th birthday request:

• We request that people join us, wherever they are located, in focusing our prayers that day [July 17th] for peace, justice, and compassion for all people, including themselves and those closest to them.
•  We invite each person to join us in being open to his/her unique way of serving others.

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Women tend to their sheep in Kenya. A SIA grant helped them start their business.

Today’s guest post is adapted from Becky Sutherland’s report for the Camps Farthest Out International (CFOI) Board of Directors. The CFOI movement, made up of over 125 Christian camps and retreats around the world, recognizes the power of individual and group prayer to bring peace to the world. Becky starts her report with a beautiful parable that encourages me to push beyond my comfort zone to find God and to listen in the silent moments to find peace.

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Once upon a time there was a shepherd who envied a great seer who went up in the mountain to pray while he, busy with his sheep, had to stay in the valley below.

One day the seer met him and asked, “Why is your face so full of gloom when all the world is full of light?”

“Because, alas, I must stay in the valley with my sheep while you climb to the mountain top and talk with God.”

“Why do you not also climb to the mountaintop?”

“Because I must keep my sheep here where the grass is long and the water in the pool is abundant.”

“But the grass up there is also long and the water is much clearer for the sheep than here.”

So the shepherd gathered his flock together and led them up the mountain. When he reached the top, there on the tableland, stretched out about him, was truly the finest grass he had ever seen.

“Now at last I can talk to God,” he said. But because he did not know the learned words of the seer he could not talk with God. But when his flock was filled and lay down to rest, a great peace came upon him; joy filled his heart, and in this peace and joy all his troubles came to an end.

As he was leading his sheep down the mountain that night the seer overtook him and asked, “Are you not glad that you took my advice and talked with God on the mountain?”

“Alas,” said the shepherd, “after I climbed the mountain, because I am not a learned man, I did not know how to talk with God.”

“My friend,” said the seer, “do you not know that the sheep you drove up the mountain were your thoughts? And the mountain was prayer. And when your sheep, after their upward climb, rested and became still, then it was that God came to you and talked with you?”

This parable, from Glenn Clark in How to Find Health Through Prayer, sounds like my story in working with CFOI so far. I made room in a busy, full life to do this job because I want to spend my time on worthwhile things. I want to live more in God’s Kingdom than ever before. I knew that it would be easier to remember that if I was working with CFOI on a daily basis.

My job is Coordinator. It’s a perfect title. I am not directing anything, but taking information and communication and ideas from all over and coordinating things. Herding sheep, if you will. I assemble and edit and make things presentable, but the Board is responsible for its decisions and actions. I love my role. Still, it is easy to get caught up in all the details and tasks, thinking these are my sheep that I must feed in the valley. Jesus, of course, has a higher way. He is teaching me about bringing my sheep up the mountain to eat the better grass and to let God handle the sheep and give me peace and joy.

(…)

May God increase my ability to go to the high places, bringing with me all of my concerns and responsibilities, and feed the sheep on the very best grass and drink from the clearest water.

–Becky Sutherland, CFOI Coordinator

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From this day in Del’s Journal – September 28, 2002

“God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think.”  (Ephesians 3:20)  “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons and daughters of God.” (Mathew 5:9)

Being and expressing this peace and participating with God in bringing peace here on earth as it is in heaven (in the invisible) is an activity of being a co-creator with God. Bringing peace on earth is being in God’s grace activity and also brings forth a flow of health to mind and body.  This is a process and a practice that maintains and sustains a wholeness activity of mind and body.  This is an exercise of being aware of and practicing the presence of God in feeling, thought, experience, attitude, desire, will, actions and reactions, moment by moment. This is rejoicing in the Lord and receiving and participating in God’s peace, love and steadfastness.  This is letting go and allowing God to be God in me, through me and as me.

“Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, for they trusteth in Thee.”  (Isaiah 26:3)

Peace and anxiety cannot exist together. This is a division of thought and trust and we are told, “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”  (Isaiah 26:5).  This is a heart silence, a deep peace within, despite outer negative conditions.  Receiving God’s peace is our true heritage.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  (John 14:27).

God’s purposes cannot be fulfilled without our cooperation, yours and mine. Most of life is a letting, and we learn as we trust God.   We also have the sacred privilege of being a co-creator in and with God. I am a branch of the tree of God’s life.  What kind of fruit am I producing?

Pastor Oliver and his wife grow passion fruit Kenya.

Prayer:  Infinite Bounty of your grace within me, Thou art my inspiration and my guide.  Increase my desire and will that I may focus ~ looking, loving, longing to be more like Jesus, who said, “The works I do, you can do, and greater works can you do.”

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My new house is right across the Yale Divinity School and today I joined the community for their daily worship service. The moment the music started I began to get teary-eyed and I remained that way for the whole 30-minute prayer and praise service. I felt so surrounded by power and goodness and I realized how often those feelings come along with music for me.

Mark Miller and the Marquand Gospel Choir sang an amazing service filled with joy, gratitude, relinquishment, and even laughter! The reading for the day, the “parable of the prodigal” (Luke 15:11-24), was adapted to be a sort of musical with pop songs. What joy and merriment this brought into the chapel. And yet, there were also moments of pure heaven as the voices sang, “Justice! Kindness! Walk humbly with you God!”

Glenn Clark recognized the potential for song to being harmony and unity to a group and music is now an integral part of CFOI camps. Marsha Johnson recently recalled to me being at the CFO International camp in Nairobi, Kenya listening to the amazing music from people of the African CFO camps. She described being surrounded by the beautiful sound and I could hear that the power of that music was still a tangible experience for her, even five years later. Also, many of our Spirit in Action coordinators use song as a way to bring people together at the beginning of SIA Small Business Training workshops.

Pygmy (indigenous) man in the Buziralo Jungle of DR Congo plays the drum as a call to worship. Photo by Jacob Lipandasi

Indeed this harmony in music, uniting people of many cultures, is one of the central principles of Taizé, an international, ecumenical community in France. I visited with my family in the summer of 2006, along with 4,500 youth and 500 adults from all over the world. Three times each day, the whole group came together for services, which included simple chant-like songs and periods of silence for individual meditation, reflection and communion with God. The peace created by 5,000 people from countless different backgrounds singing and praying in many languages was so real for me. The amazing energy from such a group makes peace of earth feel within reach. That possibility for goodness was the same feeling I felt this morning and which stays with me now.

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