Conflict: Do you see it as a fight? A maze you cannot find your way through? Do you feel it as a surge of energy? A knot in the stomach? We need Christ’s healing in the midst of conflict at home, at our jobs, in our congregations, across our church, and globally.
Conflict is complex. Each of us has our own images, personal histories, emotions, and understandings of conflict. The gift and goal of life together in the church is, as the body of Christ, to minister to a wounded world. We are part of that world; we also inflict many of those wounds. In Christ we become gifts to one another so that, in the midst of our differences, we can be the faithful community God is calling us to be. God hears our cries of pain, binds up the broken, heals, and brings new life out of death and destruction as the Spirit restores and renews community.
This message is adapted from “Healing in the Midst of Conflict” written by Norma Cook Everist in the October 2005 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather magazine).