Conflict Resolution; James

May the mumbling commence!

All of us like to be well and whole.  Peace is a wonderful place to be.  But how do we get there when our lives seem to be nothing but a string of conflicts?  Read from James chapter four (NRSV):

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?  You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.  Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (Verses 1-4)

If we allow our appetites and cravings reign, there will be no peace.  They only know how to ask for more and more.  Their intent is to satisfy themselves and worry little or not at all about others.  Soon nothing else will matter other than satisfying our appetites and cravings.

What happens when two different people’s appetites conflict?  Sometimes we covet what another person has.  You want it but do not have it.  Eventually, if left unchecked, our appetites will stop at nothing to satisfy themselves.  Conflict and disputes will be the order of the day.

And if conflicts and disputes will not get what we want, then we will up the ante.  We will be willing to overlook damage done to others… even so far as counting their lives as forfeit.

You may stop and think that we don’t do this.  But you’re wrong.  In this country, we have been accustomed to low prices on products and service.  Those low prices come at the cost of refusing to offer a living wage to an employee.  Those low prices come at the cost of sub-standard health care insurance.  Those low prices… well, someone else is taking the proverbial short end of the stick.

It is no wonder that conflict and disputes in our world are many and manifold.  Until we bridle our appetites, the peace and wholeness and wellness of all creatures in this world will be impossible to attain.  And that, my brothers and sisters is enmity with God.

Help us, O Lord.  Help us to know what to ask for and why to ask for it.  We greatly desire that peace.  Help us to be willing to pay the price for peace – a price that never should include violence of any sort: physical, mental, verbal or spiritual.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out