Clearing the air most important in building peace

Trappist monk Thomas Merton is one of my mentors in writing. I'm reading through his book The Nonviolent Alternative on Thursday mornings as part of my daily worship/devotional time. As I read this morning my thoughts turned to our recent Lockhart ISD School Board election. The process was contentious. Now that it has been resolved through the election process, how will these men and women create an environment that will help them move forward? Merton suggests this in his essay "The Christian in World Crisis" from The Nonviolent Alternative (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1980):

"One of our most important tasks today is to clear the atmosphere so that [people] can understand their plight without hatred, without fury, without desperation, and with the minimum of good will. A humble and objective seriousness in necessary for the long task of restoring mutual confidence and preparing the way for the necessary work of collaboration in building...peace." (23)

My prayer is for clear air and good will in the months to come for the sake of our school board and the children and youth of our community.

Add another blessing

Today is the day for our congregation's joint prayer service with the Lockhart Church of Christ. I preached about the significance of this opportunity during worship on Sunday. I got a good response from our community of faith. Most unexpected was the response of our CYF (high school youth fellowship). The youth group after worship focused on 1 Corinthians 12 . . . where Paul describes the church as a body. They talked at length about division and schism. In their conversation, they discerned an invitation from God to attend the prayer service as a group. I was caught wonderfully offguard by their intentions. It truly blessed me to see them open to God's leading and their willingness to embrace a worthy cause. They will kill me for saying this, but . . . "I'm likin' the way they roll!"