CHAPLAINS CORNER

PEACE

It’s a word that we love to hear. It’s a thought that we love to imagine. It’s a feeling we love to have. It’s an idea we love to celebrate. 

But it has been hard to find peace lately in our news. 

That may be because we don’t fully understand the meaning of peace. 

Peace is not the absence of conflict. That’s a popular misconception. Conflict is normal. It happens when deeply held values are pitted against one another. When justice is pitted against safety, there is conflict. When liberty is pitted against choice, there is conflict. When truth is pitted against security, there is conflict. 

Conflict is the natural result of deeply held values struggling for priority. Often times this struggle is necessary and helpful. When it is so, our suffering around conflict may actually be transformational suffering, which we all need to grow and mature (think “growing pains” massively scaled up). 

Wisdom suggests that real peace is the presence of hope in the midst of conflict. When natural conflict causes transformational suffering, it is actually a sign of progress, and that can give us hope in the midst of conflict.  

So if you’ve been struggling (as I have) these days with the weight of conflict(s), I encourage you to imagine what the transformation will look like, be like, feel like, when we’re on the other side of our present educational sufferings, and let those imaginations bring you hope! 

Wishing you peace and hope,

STACEY L. HANSON, Ch, Lt Col, USAF