An encouragement? No, a command.

The path forward is seldom straight, and sometimes unpaved. McKenzie River Trail (2023)

Approx. read time: 1:45 min.

I receive emails, have conversations, about one a day, from folks who are distraught with “how things are.”

And the words of the Teacher keep coming to mind: DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED.

These are not the consoling words of a mother to a child. These are the words of Teacher to disciples.

The words arrive as a command; a discipline of heart, mind, attitude, spirit: DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED.

As though to say: Harness those unruly spaces within you. Nonviolently resist the overwhelming ever-present forces of darkness, chaos, destruction, and death. Allow them no purchase in your imagination, actions, or speech.

As though to say: Hold firm. In the darkest, moonless night stars shine their brightest. Behind prison walls the imprisoned one lives for that one fleeting ray of light that comes through the unnoticed crack in the wall.

Why nonviolently resist? Why hope for light?

Here’s why: You and I are being apprenticed to a greater work: To build what is new, bursting with life and possibility, right here, right now—yes, precisely in the midst of the mess. Not pending imagined happy outcomes and resolution of chaos, but now.

This is called creative nonviolent resistance to forces of violence. Jesus is our model.

Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not dissipate your vitality of spirit. We have work to do, you and I, that must bring some measure of good and possibility to those whose lives we touch.

The merit of your life and mine will not be measured by how much we groaned against the dark, but by how faithfully, creatively, and generously we worked toward building a world that works for everyone. Starting here, close in. Starting now.

Start with my video series, What Peacemaking Looks Like. It’s free. Check it out.

Be well. Love one another. Live in Peace.

Let me know your thoughts.