By Wendy Choy-Chan

A meeting is called to resolve the conflict. Each person presents the argument for or against. Everyone agrees to stand by the result of the vote so as to keep the unity of the group. Is peace the end product of this peacemaking process with the resolution of the conflict?

 Shalom, biblical peace is not the end state of a conflict removed (the end of some means), but an active state of fullness and wholeness (the means is the end). The process of peacemaking is in fact shalom, when peacemaking is carried out “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:2-3)

 Shalom happens in the flow of humility, gentleness, patience, and love in a relationship. God is the relational Trinity, eternally in the communion of love, and we are created as relational beings, who are meant to be living in a communion of love. “Living” and “communion” do not happen only after peacemaking, but during and throughout, for humility, gentleness, patience, and love are actions needing an object: I am humbling myself before someone, I am being gentle to someone, I am having patience for someone, and I am loving someone. As such, peace is not the end product after the peacemaking process is over when everyone goes home after the meeting (or leaves the zoom meeting!), but the bond of peace is present and being maintained by humility, gentleness, patience, and love throughout the peacemaking process.

 So, it is not what we discuss or argue and the vote that gives the means to a peaceful resolution at the end of the meeting, but it is how we discuss or argue that makes for a peaceful communication and communion. The decision at the end settles and removes the conflict, but the heart does not wait until that point to ask itself, “Am I at peace now that the conflict is absent?” Rather, as each person gives of his/her heart to others in humility, gentleness, patience, and love, and receives from others likewise, shalom flows into and out of the hearts of all during peacemaking, for that is peace in the making, peace in presence.

Wendy Choy-Chan came to North America from Hong Kong when she was 15. After graduating with a MScE, she worked as a telecommunications engineer for a few years before becoming a full-time mom. She earned her MA in Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2016, and is now pursuing a D.Min in Affective Spirituality and Christian Formation at Multonmah Biblical Seminary. Wendy lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and two daughters.