Dealing With Conflict

Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. (Luke 12:51 NIV)

At first reading, these words of Jesus sound so opposite of who we thought Jesus was.  But think about it.  What real good in this world has ever been accomplished without conflict?  Can you even imagine what the world would be like if absolutely everyone just smiled and never spoke up?  No one ever voiced their opinion for fear of offending?  No one ever said, "NO!  This is not right!"?  We would all be miserable and probably riddled with ulcers.

No, Jesus isn't about never having conflict, but he is about how we deal with it.  It is not conflict that breaks us.  It is the despair in conflict that breaks us.  What Jesus teaches us is to enter into conflict with hope and the desire to see good come from it.  It is about loving even those with whom we strongly disagree.

The traditional marriage vows need some work.  In the passion of new love, we have no problem believing we can love through sickness and health and richer and poorer.  But can we love through addiction?  A controlling mother-in-law?  Long-term unemployment?  or a myriad of other extreme possibilities?

 Even with someone we love enough to promise to live out our lives with them, there will be conflict.  But we should face each with a sense of hope... or even a sense of opportunity.  We can get angry.  We can express our opinion... loudly, if that''s our style.  But always, always, do it in a healthy way.  A way which continually points to the hope at the end of the conflict.

Lord Jesus,
Teach us how to handle the conflict that will arise in our personal lives, in our communities of faith and in local and national governing bodies.  May we enter into it with hope.  Amen.