Wisdom Studies,
Issues of Our Time,
Counseling, and
Improvisational Music.
John Genyo Sprague, M.A.
Peacemaker Mission
The peacemaker mission is good for you
The peacemaker mission is good for everyone
The Peacemaker mission arises within each of us, in our own lives, when we are moved to make peace – to devote ourselves to resolving our conflicts and meeting our needs non-violently. The Peacemaker mission asks that we live our lives with integrity, and take responsibility for our part in the global web of relations, without hurting or oppressing others.
Some of us are leaders, some of us are followers. Some of us are war-makers, some of us are victims of war. But most of us live ordinary lives. We are all fallible humans. We share the same basic needs of food and water and air to breath, and we share basic life facts like having fathers and mothers who gave us birth. We are also all gifted in some way; everyone of us has something to contribute. Ultimately we are all conscious living beings on an extraordinarily rich and alive planet!
As leaders, or as ordinary global citizens, everyone of us is responsible for the quality of life we find in our global society. When we try to meet our needs through violence or oppression, we create a more violent, dangerous, and stressful world. Human beings are remarkable in the abundant creative achievements we have realized throughout our history. But along the way we have also created tremendous suffering, sorrow, and planetary stress. Our long term prospects for healthy survival as a species are in question. There is so much peacemaking needed.
Even if you are blessed with money and power, life on planet earth is still a highly stressful place. No amount of money, or power, or military might can truly protect anyone of us from the negative repercussions of what we have created. At the same time earth is such a beautiful planet, and we are all blessed with the miracle of life. Let's collaborate to create a world that will be healthy and beneficial for all peoples, and indeed all of life on earth. This is the Peacemaker Mission.
The peacemaker mission is not something I personally am starting. I am not an organizer or activist, except through this website. I am not creating a new organization which I am asking you to join. Rather, as I said at the beginning of this essay, the Peacemaker Mission is truly your life, your peacemaker work. It is a call to everyone of us – individuals, groups, and nations – to give priority to conflict resolution wherever it is needed. We do this for our own benefit, and the benefit of our families and nations. When we try to achieve benefit just for ourselves, or our our own group, this paradoxically does not create the best results for us in terms of quality of life, even if it seems to in the short run.
The Peacemaker Mission simply names the urgent need for conflict resolution all over this planet. I urge you to consider where peacemaking is needed in your life, in the groups that you are a member of, and, of course, in the larger national and global society. I honor the peacemaker in every one of us, and celebrate all the heartfelt peacemaking going on every where, all over the planet. And I call everyone to take part wherever you, in whatever way you can, big or small, in this peacemaker mission.
(more to come)