Practicing Peace in Thought, Word, and Deed
Deepening Our Understanding of Peace
The peace of God is transformative. It changes us from those who would use oppressive power to a people who nurture and tend. The peace of Christ moves us into new places. This holy peace requires that we change and move, not stay stagnant.
-Laurie Brock
Each Saturday we invite you to pause, reflect upon, and integrate into your life what you have learned during the past week. The most important learnings from the week most likely will be personal, those that emerged for you as you interacted with the reflections and the prompts.
The process of change usually happens in stages. First, we have a thought, a new idea, or insight into something that we might want to change, and then we often speak that thought out loud in a conversation with others, or in our prayers. For example, “I am starting to think that I am ready to ________ and I may need your support in doing ________.” Finally, change involves action, doing something different. We describe this three-step process as changing through thought, word, and deed.
While we have focused on deepening our understanding of peace this week, the overall focus of this Advent devotional is practicing peace. The quote above, from Laurie’s reflection, reminds us that “the peace of Christ moves us into new places.” Our prayer is that each of us may be open to the new places Christ may be calling us to practice peace this Advent season.
Making it Personal: What was the most significant insight you had this week as you read and reflected on deepening your understanding of peace? Are you aware of a new way in which Christ is calling you to expand your practice of peace this Advent, perhaps in a way that moves you out of your comfort zone?