Creating peace in my corner

Earlier this week, we were treated to a brief burst of spring. Warmth and blue skies, combined with nature's greening, blossoming, bursting and sun-gilding, and a general pleasantness and delight in even the briefest of exchanges. And right now, we need every moment of delight, every crocus and daffodil and exchange of smiles, when our news feeds are so dominated by air strikes, destruction and death in Iran and the Middle East, heated arguments here, and reminders of how close an otherwise distant war can come. 

And as I sit with all this, and with God, I feel a growing call to really work at creating peace and reconciliation in my own corner of our bruised and wounded world. Partly because it just feels needed, but also because I cannot deplore another's belligerence whilst not calming my own. Thus, it is a call to look at the roots of my own anger, and the wounds and weakness which nourish it; to ask myself what within me needs to be reconciled; and to work at being more patient and forgiving, less irritable and snappy. It is a call which began in Lent, this great season of conversion and renewal, when we seek to become our best selves; but which certainly needs to continue into Easter and well beyond... as this war and its reverberations most surely, sadly will. And of course, a call to pray for the grace to do all this, aware that I cannot 'work at' anything on my own. It all has to be grace; all done with Jesus, who shows us how he fought the greatest of battles, armed only with limitless love. 

Will any of this make a difference to the war in the Middle East? No. Can this make a difference to me, and to my corner of the world, and the people I encounter? I most certainly hope and pray so! 

How is God calling you to respond to what is happening to our world?