In Search Of.....Shalom
I am a peacemaker.
Since I was a child, my desire for peace with others and between others has been paramount to most every pursuit. Growing up in an alcoholic family, my beautiful peacemaker heart became a wretched people-pleaser heart. I lost sight of myself and became someone who tried to make every person happy by smoothing things over, making sure all rules were followed and chores were done. Never was offended. Didn't talk too loud. Didn't make a mess. So deeply I feared the fights my parents had. Now, it's my 2 teenagers' battles that make me wish I was deaf!
Shalom is a Hebrew word usually interpreted as "peace" but from my readings and personal experience, shalom represents wholeness, as well as a sense of well-being and security, a state of harmony and tranquility. Some equate shalom with balance and coexistence of opposing states, represented in its use as a greeting and a farewell.
Shalom is not the absence of conflict. Shalom is being in the midst of a storm and still having the ability to reason and more importantly, to hope, to love, and to persevere. Shalom is NOT freaking out. Shalom exists within peace and pandemonium, transcendent. It's what mind, body, and spirit need to thrive, even in the worst of times.
Definitions aside, I know I need it like I need oxygen. More than I need oxygen. It allows me to endure the most unjust and painful experiences without becoming bitter and resentful, even vengeful. Shalom gives me the ability and sometimes just the willingness, to see each life event and person through God's eyes and to believe that I can find beauty and good in everything. Shalom is not merely a feeling, but a choice.
Shalom isn't faith but they are surely connected. Jehovah is called by the name shalom (Judges 6:24). Yeshua said Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Of course, he used the word shalom, expressing that first, shalom is a gift from him, and second, that his shalom is different from the world's definition of peace.
I find more comfort and illumination in the second sentence neither let it (your heart) be afraid. Fear is my nemesis, my arch-enemy. And it makes me think that the opposite of shalom is not war, but fear. So I like to think about the word shalom, even say it over and over. Only when I possess shalom and actively express it in my life, am i able to share it with others.
Shalom.
Shalom is a Hebrew word usually interpreted as "peace" but from my readings and personal experience, shalom represents wholeness, as well as a sense of well-being and security, a state of harmony and tranquility. Some equate shalom with balance and coexistence of opposing states, represented in its use as a greeting and a farewell.
Shalom is not the absence of conflict. Shalom is being in the midst of a storm and still having the ability to reason and more importantly, to hope, to love, and to persevere. Shalom is NOT freaking out. Shalom exists within peace and pandemonium, transcendent. It's what mind, body, and spirit need to thrive, even in the worst of times.
Definitions aside, I know I need it like I need oxygen. More than I need oxygen. It allows me to endure the most unjust and painful experiences without becoming bitter and resentful, even vengeful. Shalom gives me the ability and sometimes just the willingness, to see each life event and person through God's eyes and to believe that I can find beauty and good in everything. Shalom is not merely a feeling, but a choice.
Shalom isn't faith but they are surely connected. Jehovah is called by the name shalom (Judges 6:24). Yeshua said Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Of course, he used the word shalom, expressing that first, shalom is a gift from him, and second, that his shalom is different from the world's definition of peace.
I find more comfort and illumination in the second sentence neither let it (your heart) be afraid. Fear is my nemesis, my arch-enemy. And it makes me think that the opposite of shalom is not war, but fear. So I like to think about the word shalom, even say it over and over. Only when I possess shalom and actively express it in my life, am i able to share it with others.
Shalom.
Comments
Post a Comment