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Friends United
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Quaker Life |
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By Katie Terrell, Communications Editor Recently I read the bestselling biography, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. It is the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who joined the Army Air Corps when the 1940 Olympics were cancelled due to World War II. Half of Zamperini’s military career would be spent in POW camps, enduring various forms of cruelty. When the war ended, Zamperini was freed from the camps, but not from the psychological effects of the suffering he had endured. Reading about his tortured dreams and bouts with alcoholism after the war was equally as painful as reading about the beatings he received during the war. But Zamperini’s story doesn’t end in devastation. Zamperini, now 94 and living in California, gave his life to Christ in 1949 and as a result was able to move beyond his past and forgive his captors. After reading this book I immediately wanted to share it with Friends. Not because it affirms our peace testimony by showing the ravages of war on a person’s whole self — though you could easily argue that point — but because the redemption that Zamperini experienced made him into the kind of peacemaker I want to be, the kind of peacemaker who forgives even the worst atrocities. Isn’t that what Jesus did? I know plenty of Quakers who have served in the military. I know plenty of Quakers who have marched against war. I wouldn’t consider one group of Friends better peacemakers than the other. If that sounds crazy consider all the ways we hurt others (and ourselves) in our day-to-day lives, from outright discrimination to our passive aggressive tendencies, judging others whose beliefs are different from our own and holding grudges when we’ve been hurt, refusing to forgive ourselves and not allowing space for the Spirit to show us a better way. Our writers in this issue share how they have “failed badly” (pp. 12-15) at practicing peace when working with yearly meeting committees (we’ve all been there!) and come up short of God’s charge to “speak evil of no man” (pp. 16-17). They also point us to our responsibility as Friends to live up to our testimonies, to visit the sick and imprisoned (p. 18); to treat others as we want to be treated (p. 20); to learn from our experiences, however mysterious (p. 21); and to reflect God’s Love (p. 22). Oscar Lugusa (p. 19) shares a Kiswahili saying, “Kujenga ni kazi, kubomoa ni rahisi.” The essence of this saying is, “It takes a lot of work to build, but destroying is so easy.” It doesn’t matter how many marches we participate in if we yell at our children in the supermarket or speak ill of our president or judge others who we know nothing about. As children of God we have this awesome responsibility of being living witnesses, every single day. Louis Zamperini is a witness to the redeeming power of God’s amazing grace. What is your life a witness to? |
12 Experiencing
the Healing Power of the Cross 16 Speak Evil
of No Man...Really? 18 In Prison
and You Came to See Me 20 The Golden Rule 22 We
Are All Conscientious Objectors _______________________________ 4 Quaker Life Today 7 Sacred Moments 8 News from Friends United Meeting
19 Scripture for Living 21 Inspirations 23 Ask Tom 24 Peace Notes 28 Reviews 31 Passages 40 Classifieds
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