Peaceful living

I sat this morning with my sister discussing how our upbringing has taught us about what we do and do not want to be like. With regret we talk about those we love and how they have not been able to use their experience and knowledge in loving ways rather than preaching and nagging…how our relationships with them have always been full of conflict. We talk about how some people are remembered for their loving, peaceful lives and others for their anger and the strife they bring to everyone around them. Then, I read this in a daily e-mail…


The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
- James 3:17-18

Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can do only as much as God makes us able to; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero, from his last homily, March 23, 1980


God speaks and we must listen - or else we too will be remembered not for the peace of God shown through our lives, but for the lack thereof. Someone once told me that I was not called to be effective, but faithful. I pray for all of us who have a difficult time with this concept.