Jeremy L. Berg

Are You a Peacemaker…or Just Another Pundit?

I’m sharing a series of posts on the beatitudes by the good folks at The After Party. This week: the high calling of peacemaking. -JB

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” One year after the election, we have to ask ourselves: Are we known as peacemakers… or just another voice in the noise?

Being a peacemaker doesn’t mean everyone around you will join in. Some people will remain combative. Some will cling to outrage or fear. But our calling remains the same: to be people of peace in a world of division.

Did you know research shows that when you argue with someone about their political views, they’re more likely to double down on their position – not change it? Fighting rarely convinces. But peace disarms. Humility surprises. Kindness breaks down walls.

This fall, what would it look like to stop trying to convince everyone, and instead become someone who builds bridges? Your life and posture will speak louder than any argument. Who in your life needs to be invited into a different way of engaging?

Share The After Party with them as a tool to build bridges in your community – to pursue the way of Jesus in a divided world.

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: a Prayer from Saint Francis 

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.