Life has taught us that we should be at peace with God, with our neighbors and with ourselves. There is a life story to demonstrate this point. A young man went out to steal for the first time. His chance came when a woman parked her car and left the ignition key inside and went into the mall. The young man approached the car, opened the door and got inside. He however saw hanging on the rear mirror an inscription: ‘Peace be with you’. These words struck him so powerfully that he changed his mind. Instead of taking the woman’s car, he left the car with a note, “it was my intention to steal your car, but when I saw your hanging, peace be with you, I thought to myself, if I steal your car, I would deprive you of peace and I will know no peace myself. I decided not to steal your car. By the way, this was my first attempt. So please in future, remember to lock your car and remove the key from the ignition. ‘Peace be with you!’ Would be thief”.
In some parts of the world people are greeted with peace. In the Gambia, the common greeting is ‘Sala-male-kum’ and the answer is ‘male-kum-salem’, this means ‘let there peace’ and the response is ‘peace only’. Shalom is commonly used also to wish peace to people. This means that peace is a common quest for everyone. Though we talk about peace and wish everyone peace, do we really have peace? If we take a cursory glance around the world, our environment and our cities, do we really see peace? We have been following the activities of the Middle East, how nations are fed up with their leaders and demonstrate for peace. We are also appalled as these leaders put a lot of resistance and cling to power. As a result many have lost their lives in the process. Whenever there is inequality and fair distribution of wealth among people in the state, in a country or in a community, there is bound to be conflict and civil strife.
Are we doing all it takes to fight for peace? Consider the toys we give our children, the video games we distribute at Christmas and the many violent films we watch. Think of our utterances and the company we keep. There seem to be violence everywhere. No wonder why there is no peace. Yet we are Christians.
How can we capture the essence of peace? In my opinion the answer lies in the way we live. We must change our attitude to life and pursue the things that will bring us peace. If we want peace, we have to work for it. This is not just wishful thinking or something we say. Peace should be something we do. Ps. 71 reminds us that in his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon be no more. This refers to the days of Christ, the days of God. If we are filled with the glory of God, then we will work for peace. Christ assures us of the blessing that will be received by those who work for peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Mt. 5:9). Is it possible to, by any chance, learn the life's lesson from the would be theif?
Like the song says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me", we all have to work and pray that some day we can all live in peace with each other. Man has been fighting since the beginning of time. Can and will this ever happen that we have total peace? I sure hope so. We will really have to work and pray hard.
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