 ‘Our own species is synonymous with screwing up.’ (Kathryn Schulz) Nigel Farage mocked the EU Parliament after the controversial Brexit referendum result: ‘When I came here 17 years ago and I said I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, you're not laughing now, are you?’ Margaret Thatcher laughed dismissively too in the UK Parliament when members of her own Government suggested that Nelson Mandela may become a major figure after imprisonment. Mandela later became one of the most internationally-admired leaders of the 20th century. Jesus Christ also met with laughter when he claimed that a young girl who had died was ‘sleeping’. The crowd jeered sarcastically yet Jesus took the girl’s hand, spoke to her – and restored her life. Matthew Henry commented: 'They would never again laugh at any word of his.' We can see a pattern appear. The mistakes weren't simple stupidity. People extrapolated from the world they knew. They assumed current ‘realities’ (e.g. politics, economics, cultural beliefs, Divine activity) would stay fixed. History changes when assumed constraints disappear.
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 English translation of a talk I delivered for a 'Prayers for Peace' meeting in Germany this week: Martin Luther King is famous for having ‘a dream’ – a vision from God of a bright new reality that he was willing to live and die for. For him, peace was far more than the absence of conflict. After all, people, communities and even nations can co-exist alongside one-another for a time, even if there are tensions, grievances or injustices in and between them.* We see an example in history of ‘Pax Romana’ – a peace of sorts that the Roman Empire established and maintained by the overwhelming force of the military, rather than through building positive relationships between neighbouring peoples and societies. It was a way of holding an empire together by active coercion and brutal suppression of all dissent. The Roman historian, Tacitus, commented that, ‘They (the Romans) make a desert and call it peace.’ This was the world into which Jesus Christ was born. It helps us understand the dilemma for Pilate when some Jewish leaders said Jesus claimed to be King of the Jews. If the accusation were true, it could be a threat to ‘Pax Romana’. Pilate was forced to act. Martin Luther King calls this ‘negative peace’. It’s often better than open violence or war, yet because the underlying issues are not addressed or resolved, it’s likely to be a fragile state that could collapse at any time. Martin Luther King advocated for a ‘positive peace’, characterised by an active reaching towards the ‘other’ with love, forgiveness and hope. This is the peace we see modelled by Jesus Christ who reaches out actively towards us. He doesn’t ignore the problems and challenges but takes positive initiative to resolve them. This is what he calls us to do too. It’s a peace that reflects the Hebrew idea of ‘Shalom’ (שָׁלוֹם) – a holistic peace that includes restoration, safety, wholeness, harmony and wellbeing. As we look across the world today and see increasing tensions, conflicts and wars, let’s pray for a positive peace that is so much more than an absence of violence. Let’s pray especially for those who are so blinded by hate, hurt or self-interest that they can’t even imagine a different way or future. Let’s pray – with God’s help – for love, forgiveness and hope. *(e.g. Treaty of Versailles (1919); Treaty of Trianon (1920); Korean Armistice Agreement (1953); Israel-Lebanon May 17 Agreement (1983); Dayton Accord – Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995); Northern Ireland 'Peace without Reconciliation' (1998-present); Post-Civil War Libya (2011–present); India-Pakistan Ceasefire Agreement (2003/2021); Gaza Peace Plan (2025))  ‘Fear is a shadow that always walks behind you, speaking in your ear that you must watch your back, carry the basics and look for exit routes, lest you need to run for your life.’ (Fiyaz Mughal) Shortly before she died, a friend and colleague, Rachael, talked to me openly about her Jewish faith. It was against the backdrop of the UK and wider Europe receiving a significant influx of people seeking asylum from countries with predominantly Muslim populations. ‘To be honest, Nick, I have never felt so afraid in my life.’ Rachael was living in London and genuinely feared for her safety. As she spoke, she talked about very real threats from three pincer movement-like sources: Islamist extremists; anti-Israel Leftists; xenophobic far-Right. I could feel her fear, sense her deep anxiety, and I felt powerless. I didn’t know what to say or do. As we left the café where we had been speaking, we passed by a woman at the side of the road dressed in Muslim clothing and selling copies of the Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless people to earn a living). To my surprise and shame, I noticed a slight yet perceptible tension in my body, having just heard Rachael’s story. No! – I stopped myself. This is how it starts. I turned around, walked back, bought a copy and thanked the woman with a smile. A Christian Palestinian colleague in Jordan helped me to process this experience. He commented that, in his region and in the wider world today, sectarian tribalism is a significant challenge. ‘Each group takes sides with whomever they feel an identity with and an empathy for. In stark contrast, followers of Jesus are called distinctively to show concern for all sides as fellow human beings, loved by and created in the image of God.’ This is a high calling and a difficult task. How to stand-with in solidarity, without standing-against in hostility? I pray God help us.  ‘Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.’ (John Keats) Earlier this year, I had the privilege of doing some Action Learning training work in Georgia and, while there, I visited an Orthodox Christian church in Tbilisi. It was a new experience for me. The building inside was beautifully-decorated throughout with brightly-colourful paintings of Jesus and other key figures on the walls and ceilings. There were lit candles in various places too and (strangely, for me) there were no chairs except for a couple of seats near the door. The experience inside felt alien yet familiar and, somehow, deeply inspiring. On return to the UK, I stumbled across some recordings of an Orthodox priest in Georgia, singing with others in Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke). The mood and tone of the songs felt evocative and mysterious and it prompted me to buy a copy of a short book on Orthodox Christianity to learn more about this expression of my own Christian faith from a very different culture. It struck me again how I’m attracted to difference; intrigued by new people, insights and ideas that lay outside of my existing awareness. It is, at times, the adrenaline rush of a novel experience, a fresh discovery, a revealing realisation, that makes me feel most alive. It’s also the excitement of a creative-dialectical dynamic; that is, a synergy of people, insights and ideas from diverse worlds that – just like in Action Learning – call something new into being.  ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.’ (Franklin D. Roosevelt) This coming Saturday, on a small island in the Philippines, Alijah’s parents will hold a simple ceremony to give thanks for her short yet beautiful life. In spite of her significant physical disabilities, Alijah was a bright-spirited young woman: always full of hope and always full of life. She had a wild sense of humour, never complained and studied really hard to do well in her exams. What started out as a cough last week turned out to be pneumonia. Alijah was just 19. Alijah’s parents, who loved her deeply, were too poor to afford the £50 vaccine. That upsets me.  English translation of a short talk I delivered at a Prayers for Peace meeting in Germany this evening: As many of you will know, Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister, civil rights leader and peace activist in the USA. He believed passionately that Jesus Christ provides us with an ethical vision for human relationships characterised by love, justice and peace. He also believed that Mahatma Gandhi in India provided us with a blueprint for how to outwork this in practice at national and international levels. At the heart of Martin Luther King’s approach, like that of Gandhi before him, was the principle of nonviolence. This was very different to passivity, acceptance or inaction. It called for active and determined resistance against oppression, injustice and war. At the same time, it sought to win over the other side and not to defeat them. This means that we should only use peaceful methods and should never retaliate. We can see how this idea is rooted deeply in Biblical teaching. For instance (as we looked at recently), Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Paul tells us that if our enemies are hungry, to feed them and if they are thirsty, to give them something to drink. He tells us to overcome evil with good and that, by treating our enemies in the same way that God treats us – with love, compassion and forgiveness – it may evoke a change of heart. It’s a stark contrast to so much of what we see in the world today. For instance, social media often polarises opinions and very quickly divides the world into ‘us’ – those who are like us and agree with us – and ‘them’ – those who aren’t and don’t. We may believe we are good and right, and those on the other side are bad and wrong. Once we begin to see the world in this way, it’s only a short step until we start to regard others as the ‘enemy’. We see the same happening on the world stage too. Nations and geopolitical power blocs are asserting themselves against others, and the ‘others’ are rapidly strengthening their stances in response. This is leading to increasingly aggressive posturing, self-interested trade wars and the most expensive and terrifying arms race we have seen since the height of the cold war. It’s the absolute opposite of what Jesus calls us to do. When mutual grievances, resentments and pain become entrenched over time – such as those between Israel and Palestine, USA and Iran or Russia and Ukraine – it gets harder and harder for each side to imagine the other side’s experience and point of view – and harder still to feel any sense of empathy for them. Each blames the other for their own suffering and sees the other as the enemy that must pay the price, or be destroyed. Martin Luther King saw this in his own personal struggle as a black person. At first, he viewed white people as the enemy but began to realise that to see and treat someone in this way diminishes our own humanity as well as theirs. So, he chose nonviolence instead, believing that white people needed to be released from the dehumanising effects of oppression as well as black people. He prayed for ‘strength to love’. As we pray this evening for people caught up in conflict and war, I hope we can pray with compassion for people on all sides – that they will be released from all hate, hurt and revenge. It’s not easy…yet I believe God can do far more than we can ask or imagine. Let us pray for ourselves too, to find the strength to forgive anyone who has caused us stress, anxiety or pain – even when reconciliation feels impossible. As Martin Luther King so insightfully observed, ‘Our own liberation is bound up with theirs.’  ‘Above all, try something.’ (Franklin D. Roosevelt) Trilemma is a new word for me. It means to face a situation where we must decide between three desirable (or undesirable) and mutually-exclusive options. Some call it an ‘impossible trinity’ where, at most, we can (or must) choose only two of the three options and, thereby, must (at least from that perspective) give up on the third. I sometimes see this when working with Christian leaders who feel caught in an ambiguous ethical choice between, say, exercising personal agency vs showing respect to others vs trusting God to act. ‘Should I seize the initiative (agency)…or wait first to see what actions others may take (respect)…or pray instead to see what God will do (trust)?’ Ignatius of Loyola offered some partial advice to help resolve this: ‘Pray as if everything depends on God – and act as if everything depends on you.’ Oliver Cromwell offered similar guidance to his troops when crossing a river to face an enemy: ‘Trust God – and keep you (gun)powder dry.’ I wonder if a tetralemma may be a useful tool here too. Future Learn published an interesting, practical case example of a trilemma when discussing the potential trade-offs of policy goals to address drugs, peace and development. It demonstrates an interdependence of sorts between intersecting issues, so that addressing one or two may have unintended consequences for the third. When have you faced a trilemma? What did you do to resolve it?  ‘Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is an adequate perception of the world.’ (Hans Margolius) There are many different ways to ground ourselves. It's a bit like anchoring myself so that I don’t lose my footing completely when buffeted by the winds and waves of life. It enables me to flex and flow adaptively and resiliently without snapping. Jesus Christ in the Bible contrasts building a house on rock vs a house on sand. It’s a vivid metaphor that illustrates a similar principle. Some people find rituals grounding. I like to start the day by having a shower to wake up, then light a candle, then sit quietly and listen contemplatively to, say, Pange Lingua Gloriosi or Jesu Dulcis Memoria. It feels like making space to breathe, to reach gently towards God, to feel his Presence within and around me. It’s a kind of prayer that calms, opens and enables me to pray. Before any kind of interaction at work – whether an email, phone call, meeting, coaching session or training event, I try to set aside time to focus and to ground myself in three core practices: prayer, presence and participation. It helps me to enter the spiritual state I hope for and, at best, to handle whatever happens from a relationally-rooted rather than reactive place. I do still get knocked sideways from time to time, especially if something happens out of the blue that clashes deeply with my own values or evokes anxiety or stress. The call for me in such situations is to return to grounding myself in God. Other methods I find helpful include focused breathing, riding a motorcycle, wandering in nature or walking with the poor. What helps you? Do you want help with grounding yourself? Get in touch!  I once went on silent retreat at Easter. Early in the morning at chapel, the leader simply played this short video on a huge screen with the volume turned up loud. He didn’t introduce it, he didn’t explain it… I felt like I was in a state of shock for the whole day. It captures so beautifully and so painfully the tragedy of the cross.  English translation of a short talk I delivered at a Prayers for Peace meeting in Germany this week: What a week. Peter Hegseth, the US Minister of War, declared brazenly that “We negotiate with bombs”, then prayed at the Pentagon for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” – “in the name of Jesus Christ.” I’m not sure which version of the Bible he is reading but something very seriously seems to have been lost or omitted in translation. Some Christian friends, Ian and Samantha, used to drive around in the UK in a VW Campervan with a sticker emblazoned across the back window that asked: “Who would Jesus bomb?” It was a satirical question yet begged the more thoughtful response: “Nobody.” Violence and bombing – in Jesus’ name – is a cynical political distortion and a total contradiction in terms. So, to the real Jesus now. (The one we see portrayed here in the crucifix at the front of this church). This is the Jesus who sacrificed his own life…listen carefully to this…for whom the writer Paul describes in the Bible as “God’s enemies”. We can imagine Hegseth squirming squeamishly at this news: “No! This is all wrong!” Yet Jesus calls us, as disciples, to follow his example. Jesus spoke very directly about this: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." It is (paraphrased) in the Lord’s prayer too: “Forgive us when we behave like an enemy, in the same way we forgive others who behave like enemies towards us.” Paul reiterates this ethic when he says: “Do not repay evil for evil.” I find this really challenging. It recognises there are others we may rightly regard as enemies, and who will regard us as enemies too. The Bible doesn’t shy away from that. Yet it calls us beyond forgiveness – to love. Does that mean to love Putin? To love the Islamist regime in Iran? (To love the warmongering Hegseth too?). It seems to push hard against all sense of justice. Difficult as it is to say this, I believe Jesus would answer with an unequivocal “Yes.” Love is God’s antidote to hate and the only true means of hope. Whoever we regard to be on “the other side”, on “the wrong side” – we are called to pray for them. Forgiveness and love hold out open hands and open hearts, even when it feels humanly impossible to do so. May God help us do it. |
Nick WrightI'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? Get in touch! 
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