Frequently my work as principal involves working with situations where conflict is present. Sometimes the conflict centers around what is actually the truth, what is best in a given situation, what happened, or what didn’t. Conflict reveals a lot about situations and people. Jesus challenged his listeners that “…the mouth speaks about what overflows from the heart.” (Matthew 12:34)
Conflict doesn’t sit well with most people. In many ways, we have become a polarized society struggling to love those who we don’t agree with. Conflict makes us uncomfortable, restless, and often drains energy and emotion if it drags on too long in unproductive ways. On the contrary, harmony and synergy enjoyed around God’s love and his purpose for us motivates, energizes, and sustains us. But it is hard to get there.
In several places and by different means I’ve been reminded
in the last number of weeks that shalom isn’t simply the absence of conflict.
Peace, understood as the absence of conflict, falls short as a complete definition.
Shalom is best understood to be the complete fullness of “all things are as
they should be, as God created them.” Shalom is the deep satisfaction of
understanding and experiencing everything God made as he originally intended
it. COVID makes me desire that even more.
St. Augustine once summarized this tension this way: “Our
heart is restless until it finds rest in You.” I’ve always thought that to be
a challenging summary of what we do in Christian education. We challenge our
students with the world they live in and make them restless and uncomfortable
in accepting it as is. We seek to instill in them a hunger for shalom in God’s
coming kingdom – the world restored and renewed. This is what we aspire to do every day at
LCES – shaping hearts, souls, and minds.
SJ
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