"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is quite the concept, resolving conflict with love. What happens if we are taught to deal with conflict wrong? Even worse, what if we haven't been taught at all to deal with conflict?
I can't pinpoint this to one person or one environment but I can say that growing up, I did not learn to handle conflict appropriately. I learned lots of great things, but this one completely escaped me.
I have always dealt with conflict with one of two ways, avoiding it or blowing things wide open. If there was a resolution, very rarely could I take credit for it.
I am grateful to say I am not only learning to handle conflict, I am learning to resolve it in Love. I don't have to be accusatory or play the blame game to state that I have been offended. I don't have to be crushed or play the victim if someone says I have a offended them. I can accept there is a situation, it needs resolved.
The enemy is great at getting us to believe we have enemies among ourselves. The truth, God created all people to live in community and anywhere an enemy is, sin is responsible. We win that victory when we make the effort, how exhausting and daunting it may seem, to resolve conflict with one another out of love. Looking forward to a resolution that brings us together in humanity as it was intended.
Society isn't so forward thinking about all of this. We are quick to sue our neighbors in court, to file police reports against those that have wronged us, to fire those employees that fall short a simple time or two, or to file for that divorce when our spouse fails to meet our expectations.
It is difficult to sit down with one another and work things out, to mediate, to save a relationship rather than write it off, to listen to others talk about how we might have offended them. We rather shout their offenses from the roof tops. We, as a society, have fallen out of love with the concept of peace and replaced it with ideas of self prosperity. What we want, what we deserve, what we earn is more important and we have forgotten to lay ourselves down and fight for the greater good.
It's time to take that fight back up. We must find the courage to speak up for justice and to commit ourselves to finding a resolution where we see wrong. We must learn to handle conflict in love so that we can teach others that same love. We must dare to dream again.
A Grateful Believer in Jesus Christ,
Johnna
No comments:
Post a Comment