I have recently had some brothers-in-Christ that are close to me, seeking help in dealing with conflict in their relationships. In an effort to try to help summarize a lot of information into a memorable format, I created an acronym to help distill the information into, to easily convey the truths that I wanted to share. I believe we are meant to be peacemakers in a world that is bent on waging war. Additionally, I have another instance of someone seeking reconciliation that has caused me to think much about Biblical conflict resolution and the gospel.
Jesus was not afraid of conflict. Why should he have been? He made the heavens, has the command of all of the legions of angels, and exists eternally. And…he rose from the dead. Jesus was not afraid of conflict, but he did indicate his coming would cause division amongst families with believers and unbelievers (Luke 12:49-53). Yet, one of his famous teachings is “Blessed are the peacemakers”. This statement is couched amongst language that teaches about the character of those whom he blesses and the expectation that there will be conflict in our lives (Matthew 5:1-12). Scripture teaches that we are to try to leave in peace with others in so far as it is up to us (Romans 12:18).
So, how do we live this out? How do we become peacemakers? This question has weighed on me the past few weeks and I decided to try to accumulate all that I’ve gathered from serving my community through pastoral counseling and put it into a format that is memorable. But, before I get to that, I have to explain some context to the acronym I used.
There is an old show called Family Matters that was popular when I was growing up. It became popular again in my house when my kids discovered this gem of a show. Our favorite character, Waldo Geraldo Faldo (played by Shawn Harrison), would often say “No prob Bob.” Waldo was a laid back guy who often stumbled over his understanding of how people communicate. I couldn’t think of a better example of what can happen without an ability to communicate effectively.
To try to summarize as much as I possibly could about communication into an acronym, I’ve used the final word in the slang phrase “No, problemo” (similar to No prob, Bob). That and the idea is to try to use the principles in this acronym to get to a point where there is no problem. So, now that you can see how the dots connect, let’s move on to the actual acronym. For each of these, I intend to write an individual post explaining it in more detail. I will link those below in the acronym.
B – Be humble and wise.
L – Listen carefully.
E – Exalt in the image of God.
M – Move towards a resolution.
O – Oneness and eternity.
Their is more to each of these than can be said here without overdoing this individual post, but know that the brief statement above will not fully elaborate on the why/what/and how that I will cover in each post. It is simply meant to be something that stimulates your memory to recall the process of communicating and seeking reconciliation with someone else. Conflict and communication is tough. But with Christ interceding, the Holy Spirit guiding, and God holding all things in his hands, we know that we can trust that reconciliation is possible.
My prayer is that this acronym would help you to find that reconciliation with whomever you may be having a problem with. And since we know that God is in control, that Jesus intercedes on our behalf, and that the Holy Spirit can direct us in what to say and how to act, we know we can have hope that reconciliation is possible in ANY situation. So, look for the individual blogs in the coming weeks and as they are posted, click on the links above for each individual step and I’ll elaborate on each of these for you.