Last night, Samantha and I were out and about in Fort Wayne in the evening enjoying some Christmas festivities.  At one point we were between two events, and as I stood outside the car as she leaned back in to get something, I saw an incredibly bright meteor shooting across the sky for what seemed like 10 seconds.  It was an awesome thing to see, but in spite of me quickly and repeatedly shouting “SAM! SAM!” she missed it.

I wonder how many people missed it the night Jesus was born?

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own stuff, wrapped up in our own heads or hearts, and totally miss what God might be doing around us.  I just happened to be looking in just the right direction to see the shooting star last night, and I’m sure I’ve missed more of them than I have seen.  In the same way, I’m sure that I miss many of the peaceful moments God has planned for me.  It isn’t always something I’ve done wrong, but just looking the wrong way at the wrong time can keep me from seeing something special.

So how do we make sure we are not missing those moments?

I’m not sure that we can be sure to avoid missing those moments.  Each one could be totally different from every other one we have experienced.  I think we just have to make some sort of effort to stay open to what God might be trying to show us, but not always make it a regimented and strictly structured thing all the time.  Structure is good, and it can be a great way for us to learn regularly, but I guarantee you that no one was expecting a choir of angels to show up that night near Bethlehem.

On the other hand, the Bible tells us of the Maji, who because of their diligent and structured study, knew from the stars that something world changing had happened, and they pursued that event at great cost to themselves.  So structure certainly isn’t to be frowned on.

As often happens with these posts, I don’t really have a great life illuminating concept to pass on to you right now, but I can share my thoughts, as I wrestle with this concept of peace.  And perhaps more so every year, I wrestle with how God chooses to reveal it to me.

How has God revealed truth to you in the past?  Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear your story.

Be sure to check out the other people on the journey with me at 254peace.org, or on our Facebook page.  There are some awesome people participating this year, and they all have something important to say.  

If you’re planning to skip any of my posts this year, it might as well be this one.  Seriously.  It may not be the most peaceful way to spend 2 minutes.  Ultimately I guess this is part of an exercise in finding peace with what I sound and look like.  It’s just a bit of stretching myself, so I can accept who I am.  It isn’t easy, and it may not be all that easy to listen too, but here it is, and I’m going to accept that this exists, that I purposely am putting it out there, and make peace with it.

Or at least I’m going to try.

An overhead view of a wetlands my father and his father before him have worked on restoring.

I often get overwhelmed with all of the things that need to be done, especially during December, and I often forget to take a moment to experience peace instead of just writing or thinking about it.

Another aerial view of the wetlands. The way the sunset is striking the trees in the background is quite remarkable.

For me, I often find peace in taking photographs while I wander about in nature.  I don’t do it nearly enough, but when I do, I find some level of enjoyment in it.

The sun setting behind the Maumee river, near Antwerp.

As the sun set, the moon draws nearer to the horizon, it’s sharp crescent cutting through the soft clouds.

The moments I captured tonight could have been easily missed.  In fact, I almost didn’t even get out the camera tonight.  I new I had a bunch of catching up to do on my 25 Days posts, and I figured I should head back from work early and getting moving.

Peace is just as easy to disregard.

What if you chose to spend just a few minutes pursuing peace as you went about your day?  Pursuing peace instead of waiting for it to come to you.  Find something that you enjoy that makes you feel peaceful at the end of the day, and go do it.  Do it even when there is a small cost like cold hands, and a late start on some other project.

Don’t miss it.

Be sure to check out the other people on the journey with me at 254peace.org, or on our Facebook page.  There are some awesome people participating this year, and they all have something important to say.  

I always love to hear your thoughts on these posts, so comment, like, or share as you will!  You can also subscribe to these posts and receive them via email each day by using the subscribe box to the right.  

As I wrapped up my essay from yesterday, I made an assertion that 1 is equal to 1.  In this day and age though, it seems that we have forgotten that there is objective and indisputable truth, so I will be doing my best to convince you today that 1=1 is not an alternative fact, and it is not up for debate.

If I have one dollar, and you have one regular ol’ dollar, I can trade you my regular ol’ dollar for yours, and we will both effectively be happy and will have not lost or gained anything in the transaction.  I think this is an easy statement for everyone to accept, and defend as truth.  We all agree that 1 equals 1.

Now, inspired by my recent trading success, I propose to you another trade.  I propose to trade you my avocado for yours.  1 avocado equals 1 avocado, right?  Perhaps you can see my avocado, and you feel confident making the trade because you see that it is in good condition, it is ripe, but not overripe.  The color is good, and the smell is as you would expect it to be.  It hasn’t been smashed or damaged and overall, you think it might even be a bit larger than your avocado.  You make the trade willingly, although a bit confused by my desire to trade things for things of equal value.

Let’s say however, that you can not see my avocado, and I refuse to show it to you.  Will you make the trade as quickly?  I suspect that it would take quite a bit more cajoling to convince you to make this trade.  However, I seek to remind you that 1 equals 1, and your hesitance is unnecessary.

Or is it?  Perhaps my avocado isn’t in very good shape.  For all you know, I’ve already taken a bite out of it!  Maybe there is a bit of untruth in the statement that 1=1?

If we stop thinking of money or of fruit (yes, the avocado is a fruit…and in fact, it is actually a berry!) and take our equation to people, it gets even more complicated.

Does 1 person equal another?

Immediately my mind says no.  Surely Hitler and Ghandi are not equal.   Jeffery Dahmer and Mother Theresa are not equal.  I could go on, but the truth is that you have already created a long mental list of people that are not equal to you, some better than you, and some who are unfit to clean your shoes.  After all, some people are truly terrible, and have wasted their potential in the most odious ways.  Perhaps, if pressed,  you’ll accept with me that each person is born equal, but by the realizations of their potential, they increase or decrease their value, quickly creating an inequality between them and us.   The equation is no longer about quantity, but quality.  It isn’t about humanity, but potential.

This is the same argument that we see with the avocado.  The quality determines equality, not the quantity.

What makes a dollar worth a dollar?  Is it the potential it is created with, or the potential that is realized through it’s use?  I can spend a dollar on a small bag of rice to give to the poor, or I can spend that dollar on a (very) small amount of heroine.  Are those dollars still equal in value now?  I’ve used the potential of that dollar in very different ways, one arguably good, and one very bad.

Are those dollars equal to each other still?  Are two people who make drastically different choices equal?  Can anything be equal to anything if we consider potential or intention?

In truth, the physical manifestation of money is not worth very much.  It is paper and ink, and I certainly have never paid a dollar for a piece of paper that size that wasn’t money.  A dollar has value because a higher power has defined it’s value.  A government that we have accepted as an authority in our life has told us that a dollar has a certain value.  We accept this value and use it as the basis for our trade.  It doesn’t matter to us what a dollar is spent on, because its value is not changed by the quality of the transaction.  Each dollar is equal to each other dollar.

A person has value because a higher power has defined their value.  It doesn’t matter how their potential has been spent, or what ideology they subscribe to and believe in, God himself has set the value of each person.

Each person, is equally valued by God, AND the the value of each person is tremendous.  In fact, God sent his very own son, who’s birth we celebrate in this season, to trade for each of us.  Each of us is as valuable to God as his own son.  (Okay…you can make the argument that God traded one for many, but you can also argue that Jesus would have come to save even one sinner, so…I think we have to accept that, while difficult to believe, God loves his created beings an incredible amount.)

How will this change your perspective of the other?

Will you believe with me that each person is incredibly important, as I believe God has made clear through his actions?  Will you treat with equal respect the homeless, and the home buyer?  Will you consider the Muslim and the Christian life as equal in value?  Will you seek to eliminate the intrinsic biases of our nation and worldview in order to more fully follow God?  Will you accept that the ledger of sin can be wiped clean and our values reset by the sacrificial work of Christ, regardless of the amount of the debt?

Will you truly believe that 1 equals 1?

If we do, I believe that the peace born unto this earth 2000 years ago, will grow more fully into its incredible potential.

I am no better than any other, and they are no better than me.

Be sure to check out the other people on the journey with me at 254peace.org, or on our Facebook page.  There are some awesome people participating this year, and they all have something important to say.  

Alternatively titled-‘The Mathematics of Peace.’  

Math is an extremely complicated and broad subject dealing with many things, but most non-mathematicians interact with it in very simple ways.  You have a quantity, and you change it.  I have a quantity of 1 apple, and I add 1 apple to that other apple, and I now have 2 apples.  I’m tempted to go on, but I don’t have heart to subject you all to several paragraphs recapping math you probably already understand.

In relation to our daily lives, we use math pretty regularly, even if we aren’t aware of it.  Many mathematical functions are automatic in our brains, or we use approximation to answer the question we have, without having to fully complete the equation.  An example of this would be my drive through order.  I know that my desired meal will cost approximately $5, and since it was just pay day, I know that I have approximately $12 in the bank.  I could write out the equation and show my work to find out if I have enough, but I know that 12 is bigger than 5, and the specifics are not as important as the end goal, which is, of course, purchasing delicious Taco Bell breakfast burritos.  Now if I return the next morning to order again, I will likely be more cautious as I consider whether I can pay or not.

It is easy to think of money as the way we most often use math in our daily lives, but I think there are other areas that we use math just as often.  After I’ve gotten my Taco Bell for the morning, I fight through the traffic, and drive to work for the day.  I arrive at work, and then proceed to work for the day, then drive home.  Many people find that they would rather be at home than work, so why do people go anyways?  Well, they have simply done the math.  They know that even though they enjoy being at home more than being at work, in order to maintain their home, and have all the nice things like food and drinks that make home so nice, they must have money.  They know that getting money can be accomplished by going to work, so they calculate the amount of their distaste for work, against the amount of desire they have for the good things provided by money.  In the form of an equation, it would be “desire for money” minus “dislike of work”.  If desire for money is bigger than dislike of work, than the individual will go to work.

So as you can see, we use math all the time.  Especially when it comes to weighing our desires against their costs.

Things get interesting when we start to apply mathematical concepts to socio-political concepts like war and peace.  (Shout out to my homeboy Tolstoy!)

War is created by an imbalance in our perception of the justness of the world around us.  Perhaps the aggressor feels that they have earned more of the worlds resources than they have thus far acquired, and they calculate that they can get more of what they feel they deserve by forcibly taking it from those around them.  Or, perhaps a group with a certain ideology feels that they are being unfairly persecuted, and their only recourse is to fight to correct the equation.  Warring parties evaluate the cost of the war, against the perceived gain of winning the war.  There are millions of micro-calculations taking place throughout the conflict as well.  Leaders should be constantly evaluating whether they can win this battle with this number of forces while suffering this number of casualties.

To simplify it, we look to the old testament.  ‘An eye for an eye.’

We constantly seek at least that balance.  He who has wronged me should be wronged equally as much as I was wronged.  Many times we aim to hurt them more than they have hurt us, which is why the old testament specifically addresses the issue, telling us it is wrong to seek to do more harm than was done to us.

So we see the math of war in front of us.  If you extrapolate it out to its furthest reaches, and attempt to balance the equation with ‘an eye for an eye’ as the standard for the solution, we quickly discover that war will eventually destroy everything.  Each injury results in a ripple effect through generations, as children are left parentless, and seek to balance the equation by taking revenge.  There is no way to balance the equation, as each retaliation shifts the imbalance to the other side.  We are on a teeter-totter of violence, each side seeking to rise above the other.

Until, that is, we introduce peace as an operator in the equation.

Peace resets the balance.  It levels the teeter-totter.

In mathematical terms, peace is impossible, it is breaking the rules of the equation, because one side or the other (and often times both) have to let something go from the ledger of wrongs committed against them.  They have to choose to ignore the numbers.  Peace is a willful choice to reset the math.  Each side has to let something go, and agree to start over.

This is what has happened for millennia, we discover the equation to be too complicated, and we pursue peace to wipe the slates clean.  The equation is 1=1 again.

The world could certainly benefit from a re-balancing now.

Let us pray for peace.

Be sure to check out the other people on the journey with me at 254peace.org, or on our Facebook page.  There are some awesome people participating this year, and they all have something important to say.