Friends in Christ Weekly Message
August 2, 2008

As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.
Psalm 17:4 (NRSV*)

Like the psalmist, we live in a violent world. Even if we are not personally committing violence, it is easy to get enmeshed in the violence of others. Violence is committed for personal reasons, in furtherance of an ideology or religion, for political and economic power, and for other reasons. It is committed by individuals, gangs, social movements, nation states, and international alliances.

The psalmist sees one of the ways to be obedient to God's call on his life is to avoid the ways of the violent. In a world in which the use of violence often seems to be assumed as a part of individual, social and political interactions, this is not easy to do.

How well do you avoid the ways of the violent?

Bill Samuel

* New Revised Standard Version © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

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