Restoring Shalom. In Our Lifetime?
From the very beginning, God has had a plan for a cohesive harmonious creation. The first humans lived completely integrated lives — they cared for one another and took care of God’s beautiful, perfect, creation. Complete harmony characterized humanity’s experiences with God. It was the means by which they maintained and expanded upon what the Scriptures refer to as “shalom”.
This concept of well-being sounds so good, it sounds so right. Maybe you find the image idealistic, more of a wish than a reality — a daydream or an illusion. Our modern experience of peace, of shalom, in a broken world, is fleeting and seemingly infrequent … it can be very frustrating when sought after.
Our world is ever changing. For many, our fears about the future are “eclipsing our hopes.” Words such as “unprecedented” and “uncertain” punctuate nearly every news article; media reports that cross our desktops, scroll across the bottom of the TV screen, all seemingly reinforcing a global pandemic, racial trauma and political divisions. Our minds, our communities, our souls can't help but be impacted.
“…For He is our shalom, the One who made the two into one and broke down the middle wall of separation. Within His flesh He made powerless the hostility—the law code of mitzvot contained in regulations. He did this in order to create within Himself one new man from the two groups, making shalom, and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross—by which He put the hostility to death…” Ephesians 2:14-16 (TLV)
“This is the moment when we need people who are
driven by a sense of mission to reweave the fabric
of our torn world—healing relationships, tending to
broken hearts, mending social strife, and creating
deep connection"
~J. Derek McNeil, PhD, President and Provost; https://theseattleschool.edu
