“Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we like to dream about. The off-center, in-between state is an ideal situation, a situation in which we don’t get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit. It’s a very tender, nonaggressive, open-ended state of affairs. To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening.” (Pema Chodron “When Things Fall Apart”)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Every day, every where there is pain, suffering, and arguing – we see it in our country from the debates that haunt our televisions to the images of rioting and protesting. All over the world, everybody –everyone wants to strike out at the person or the entity they see as the enemy. When will it ever end?

As Pema Chodron says so eloquently, “Every day we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, “Am I going to add to the aggression in the world?” Every day, at the moment when things get edgy, we can just ask ourselves, “Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?”

Where hear the words again of the famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3:7-8 “there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

There a time for protesting – but always, there must be a time where we come back to peace. We do have a choice every day – will we be people of peace, or people of war? I will try every day to be an instrument of peace.

Pastor Dave