So my ‘brother friend’ decided he and his wife are taking me out to watch a movie. I am sure you are wondering, what is a brother friend? That is when you have a male friend who is older and behaves like an older brother, advising you, caring and watching out for you, in turn you defer to him. Anyway I met them at Bayswater or Lancaster Gate, can’t remember, this was years ago, they had already bought snacks – croissants, fruits and drinks. I felt so special, you would think I never had croissants in my life. The atmosphere was so warm and pleasant, I was happy, had this silly grin on my face as we walk all the way to the Cinema. It was short lived though, the silly grin turned into weird grimace, the moment I saw the title of the movie, ‘A Time to Kill’ , in my mind I immediately started to question their taste in movies and a lot of things. ‘Who are this people?’, I thought. Suddenly they became ‘these people’ no longer my brother friend and his wife.
I need to mention that at this time in my life I was as closed minded as an unshucked oyster. There was no way I was going to watch a movie with such a title, so with the weird grimace permanently plastered on my face, my brain was racing to plot a means of escape, I thought of feigning tummy bug and locking myself in the toilet all through the movie but even I decided that will be extreme. I concluded that since I will be sitting to one end of both of them, I will strategically place my head on my hand and discreetly insert one finger in both ears to block so I could not hear anything, I would also close my eyes to prevent unpleasant sight. The couple obviously had something different planned, for reasons best known to them, they sandwiched me between both of them, my blockage plan down the drain with both of their eyes peering at me I was forced to watch and listen. What a movie! I must say.
Just to be clear, I will still never subscribe to killing any one, but I learnt the path to peace is rarely peaceful. By nature I am a peaceful and peace loving person, shunning conflict, discord, chaos, fights, confusions and the lot. Peace however is the outcome of fight in the same manner that resolutions comes after an intense moment. In life being a passive, docile person gets nobody anywhere as troubled, troubling and troublesome people abound. The kingdom of God is a place of peace, the scripture however says, the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent takes it by force. We are told that as much as it lies in our power we should live at peace with all men. It takes power to have peace, whether physical, mental or psychological power. Real peace is not the forte of the passive. We are told to labour to enter into the rest of God, again this is a place of peace but calls for labour. When God wanted to release His children from bondage to a place of peace, it was not a peaceful process, blood was shed. In our times a number of nations that have their Independence and enjoy some level of peace had to pay dearly with the souls of people to obtain such peace. A couple I know who seemed very peaceful, told me it wasn’t so in the beginning, it was a lot of fight to establish what was acceptable and not acceptable. A neighbourhood that now enjoys peace had to make all the hooligans, gangs and armed robbers understand that certain behaviour will not be tolerated. At work, in family and all aspect of society, if we truly want peace we have to understand that path can be turbulent and difficult.
I watched another movie, some years later, I have forgotten the title. An innocent white collar man was thrown into prison and the hooligans there kept picking on him, almost killing him until he was advised that if he wanted to survive prison, he had to do certain things to earn his peace, he did it and he got peace. Again I will reiterate I can never subscribe to killing but the concept of fighting for peace is now well engrained in my mind. I understand the meek will inherit the earth, but the meek must also know how to fight when it is time to fight. There are two responses to any situation , fight or flight , some will add a third, freeze. Keep all in your arsenal and know when to use them. We can’t always flee, that doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t always bring peace.
Peace is priceless, earned with life, the Prince of Peace paid with His life. Be prepared to do all within your power for peace. Selah!
Beautiful Ivory 