Posts Tagged "achieving peace"

If We Have No Peace…

Posted by Pat Stewart on Aug 11, 2017 in My Blog, Think About This | 0 comments

I have really been thinking a lot about achieving peace lately.  Peace is always on my mind and in my heart, but lately, its had higher ranking than usual.  Certainly the last few days, with the threats of nuclear warfare from the crazed leader of North Korea as well as the “over-the-top style” of Trump’s rhetoric, I see and hear tensions and fears from many. I’ve written before of my admiration of Mother Teresa as a servant, having lived a life of sacrifice to help lift others in our suffering world.  Thinking about how far away peace seems now brings to mind her quote  “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”  That really resonates with me not leaving my thoughts quickly or often.  It gets me to pondering what it is when we sense “belonging?”  Well, we belong to our families, our circle of friends, and communities of folks drawn together by common interests or beliefs.  We say we “belong” to a church or synagogue or a club or an association.  There’s comfort there.  Membership.  Being allied to.  Hmmm…ally?  Kinship? So, how big does our “circle” extend? One can take “community” from one’s town, to county, to state, to region, to country, to continent, to world, etc.  OK, when we’re considering to whom we “belong” or for whom we feel a “kinship,” how big does our circle get? I’m thinking, yeah, I feel a kinship to my family and friends, to my co-worshipers at my church, to colleagues, to fellow Rotarians, to the NC Tar Heel Basketball Nation, to my Alpha Phi sorority sisters, to the breast cancer sisterhood, to others who believe in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ…oh, and I also feel like I belong to a huge group of people called Senior Citizens.  You get where I am on this, right? But…God created mankind and I’m pretty sure He intends for us to be both human and kind…so are we really linked to all human beings no matter where they live or what they look like or what language they speak?  Mother Teresa surely felt and acted upon her feelings of kinship. If there is nothing else that links us to others, isn’t it enough that every one of us belongs to the human race and lives because of the same Creator?...