The current culture encourages throwing out comments like bait into social media and other social settings. The intent is to catch people and reel them into angry conflict over issues, both large and small, without any desire for personal, rational conversation.
We seem to be surrounded by self-help books and podcasts promising to help us make whatever change we feel would be the best. And yet so often our hopes, intentions and plans just seem to fizzle out and what we end up with is something not really that different.
We live in a world seeking instant gratification, comfort and control. Conflict, however, is uncomfortable, hard and we can’t control other people.
In a world so riven with conflict, what does the Bible mean when it says that of the greatness of His peace there will be no end?
How can we prepare ourselves well to have healthy conservations around our concerns with others?
Queen Elizabeth II, sadly died on 8 September this year. Her Christian faith was the central plank on which her servant leadership was based. And yet her personal life, like so many of ours, has at times been filled with hurt and sadness.
Why is it that sometimes peacemaking feels like climbing Everest, and other times it almost flows without thought?
Dealing with conflict is challenging. But we can learn to face it using a Biblical foundation that allows the gospel to bring hope and healing.
Wisdom learned on the land often becomes a metaphor for God’s lessons in other areas of our lives, and many of Jesus’s parables had to do with nature.