Stop the Local Battles! Peace, my Friend!
Occasionally I have seen communities with only a couple missing links in the economic development package, yet were not able to get anywhere. With such a strong community, economic development should be almost automatic.
However, in several specific instances, the downward spiral of local economy continued. As I interviewed local people to uncover the issues, it became clear that there was a major weakness. There was no peace in the community. In two cases there were continuing acts that would be classed as guerilla warfare or civil war.
In one community the open discussion of shots fired, windows broken, beatings and threatened lynchings reminds one of the situation in Iraq. I was asked not to come to that county for study for fear for my life. There will be no improvement in that county and its economy for decades to come, at least.
12. __/__ Peace
The gentle mixing of the aims and values of many is a precious style within the community. Compassion is an expected attribute of leadership. Peace is sought after both as value and as style within every relationship. Individuals and families within the community feel safe from the violence of others. Groups within the community are able to live and work while intermingled with groups of drastically varying aims and goals.
Micah 4:15
The Holy Land has known a steady progression of war and disaster for as long as we can speak of human history. It has never lasted long as a thriving economic development. Yet this land has almost always been the target of someone's aggression or greed. Sometimes the aggression or greed has been on the part of others. At other times the inhabitants have brought the war among themselves.
The geographic situation itself is a major cause of this turmoil. The narrow strip of land between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea is a major crossroads for travel, commerce and culture. Various peoples and nations of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe and Asia have had their impact on the land. In doing so they have left behind their people, their thinking, their business patterns and their faiths.
This fact alone gives major impetus to the thinking of Jesus as he tells us how to live in our modern world with immediate contact among the nations. The Beatitudes are both guidelines for blessing and a wake-up call for those trying to live as entrepreneurs in a global society.
Micah recognized this unusual status of living in the Holy Land. He also heard the call of Yahweh to develop a way of living in peace with the neighboring peoples. He knew that when the Lord's way was in place, this way of living in peace would be part of it.
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