Peacemaker or Peacekeeper?

By Sue Chess
      Executive Director

Peacemaker is just a biblical way of saying peacekeeper—or is it?  Isn’t keeping the peace what Matthew 5:9 was saying on the “Sermon on the mount” as Jesus was speaking?  Let us consider.

Somewhere in today’s culture we have lost the easy ability to determine the difference between these two words. 

When was the last time you kept quiet, not because you agreed with some stated truth but because you did not find it worth confronting?

 

You kept the peace, not made peace. 

Here at Care Net, we just finished our Spring Volunteer Training.  One of the concepts we teach is the importance of care-fronting our clients.  We teach prospective volunteers this phrase, “Our clients do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.”  This lays the foundation for telling truth in a gentle and loving way within the counseling room.

 

Suzan was just such a client.  In an earlier conversation, she revealed her love for God and her desire to please Him. However, the difficulties of her current circumstance of an unplanned pregnancy combined with her father’s standing in the church was completely overwhelming that reality.

 

What makes ultimate peace with Suzan may not be what keeps peace presently. To restate that, what would lead to peace would be currently disturbing.

The skill we want to impart of care-fronting allows us to ask hard questions such as what her future relationship with her father might feel like if she ultimately chose abortion.  I recalled our client testimony heard here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jF_MgLO8S0 .  How wonderful to have this real life story that ends with a different scenario because of truth.  This real life Mommy chose the hard path and told her parents even though she knew it would bring temporary chaos.  Three years later, we received an email from this client just before her little girl’s third birthday.  She was planning a party but first sent us an email just to say, “Thank you, Care Net, for my little girl’s life!”   Her “rest of the story” testimony was of her father’s adoration for her baby girl today.

 

Doing hard things is OFTEN what leads us to true peace.  As C.S. Lewis said, “God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”  Satan is an imitator and an imposter.  He tries to drown out that peace path by pushing us to make the wrong decision to keep temporary peace.  Showing our clients an ultrasound so they can see the TRUTH of life in the womb can be very disturbing but is sometimes all they need to make the right choice.  Sadly, Care Net has even watched the Church seek to keep peace by remaining silent on abortion in the Church.  They keep silent to “keep the peace.”  Meanwhile, according to a study done by Lifeway and Care Net in 2016, more than 1 in 3 (36%) women were attending a Christian church once a month or more at the time of their first abortion.  Churches have also fallen prey to

keeping peace rather than making peace.  By simply laying the groundwork for “care-fronting” hard topics such as abortion, the Church could speak truth in a gentle and loving way, thus making lasting peace.  Sadly, we’ve had church leaders tell us that they can’t talk about abortion because they have pro-abortion members.

 

Really?

The incredible value of lovingly asking questions that search, or sharing the Biblical standard for life, even speaking about abstinence and abortion from the platform, cannot be underestimated.  If your Pastor boldly confronts the truth, please THANK him!  It is not easy in today’s culture of “just co-exist, don’t confront me.” 

In summary, peacemakers become a connection between God’s ways and His children even if it brings temporary discomfort.  Peacekeepers paste an artificial, political smile on their face and just try to avoid any upsetting words.

I have no doubt as to which God would prefer.