Publishing Peace

¹“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isaiah 52:7). Most of us probably come up with some pretty good ideas for how we could bring more peace into our lives and to the world in general. We might feel a spiritual prompting to be the bigger person and apologize first, even though we were right and they were in the wrong. We might have a whole heaping stack of manuscript submissions on the topic of why even though forgiveness is offensive to our very core, it is the only way to allow the healing process to begin. Some of us like to think that we are in the peace publishing business, but nothing ever goes to print. Our slush pile just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and our printing presses gather dust and rust and we wander around bemoaning the fact that all anyone ever seems to publish these days is violence and hatred and bitterness. Spending years crafting and refining the perfect treatise on peace is perhaps not the best approach. In some ways, peace is much more of a numbers game. As we tirelessly deliver proclamations of peace day after day, like a newspaper, we are much more likely to have a positive and lasting effect than if we were to release a new exquisitely crafted dissertation on the salubrious effects of a peaceful regime once every ten years. Sure, some people might take our proclamations of peace and use them to clean their windows, or wrap their food in them, or line their birdcages. But some might occasionally flip through them, and some may even read parts of it. There might not be a particular message of peace that really speaks to them, but maybe every once in a while as they read something that touches their heart, they’ll remember that this person has been tirelessly delivering messages such as these to my doorstep day after day for years now, with no expectation of reward or gratitude. We need to be publishing peace every day - not because we always have something particularly profound to say about peace, but because the world is filled with conflict and chaos and the daily barrage of peaceful messages will slowly build up enough momentum to push back that tide of hatred and contention. I hope we can all find small ways every day to be courteous and kind and show love and forgiveness and bridge building as we publish peace.