LIFE SCRIPTS

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 5:9 KJV

Bishop David Oginde of CITAM talks of the danger of dichotomy. Dichotomy (duality) leads us to conflict. It draws battle lines between opposing sides. He however talks of the ‘third dimension’. The God dimension. This is the realm of the peacemaker.
The United Nations sends peace keepers to various regions of the world afflicted by war. But for there to be peace to be preserved, there must be an agent who creates that peace. Most of these agents of peace are members of the warring factions who have deliberately chosen to look beyond the dichotomy that fuels the war and unite with other like-minded people to create peace. It is not easy. Some of them face threats from both their own kind and their opponents. They choose to stand in the middle, in the line of fire from both sides because they deliberately choose to be agents of peace.
A peacemaker is someone who not only upholds peace in their society but declares war on anything that is a threat to peace (Juanita Bynum?) . Peace is a gift from God. We have no choice but to be it’s agent. However, peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is a state of harmony in the society because everyone matters. Peace doesn’t happen when the dominant muffle the voices of the oppressed. It doesn’t happen in an atmosphere of injustice. It does not happen when some are suppressed. It happens when we all decide to be its agent and agree to enjoy our diversity but work on the things that divide us. Peacemaking is one of the greatest challenge of our age. It begins with making peace with ourselves. It is only the Price of Peace who can lead us into the path of peace with others. It is only the Prince of Peace who can quiet the war within us and enable us to be agents of peace. It is only the Prince of Peace who is the third dimension.