“Who is this man, that even the waves and the wind obey Him!” Mark 4:41
I’ve been reflecting on the recent storm damage I’ve seen all over my Facebook feed, a stark reminder of the severe weather threats almost the whole country has dealt with lately. I saw one particular story about a man who was ripped from his mobile home by insanely strong winds and thrown over 1,300 feet, yet landed in such a way that he was barely injured.
As a young single parent, tornado warnings filled me with dread. Right or wrong, I was terrified my young children would be ripped from my arms by a wind gust updraft. So, I devised a plan: I’d buckle three belts together, then wrap them around my waist and then around each child, creating a makeshift leather circle. If we were to be sucked up and out, we’d be found together, I’d reasoned. We would huddle in the hallway on pillows and read from the Bible about God’s control over winds and waves until the threat passed. My now-adult children still remember those times and verses.
Since then, there have been many times the Holy Spirit prompted me to “get out the leather belts”—not for my children, but for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I often feel called to sit with them in their crisis until the worst passes, recognizing that any current discomfort is not about me. As a society, it is easy to feel like we’re caught in a perpetual storm of harmful polarization–the winds of anger and fear seem to tear at our communities, making it hard to find common ground or offer support to those on “the other side.”
We’ve become so accustomed to shouting into that wind that we’ve forgotten how to simply sit together in a shared “hallway” and discuss a way forward.
I believe we are called to peacemaking in the middle of the uproar. That doesn’t mean ignoring our differences, but recognizing that, like the man tossed by the tornado yet uninjured, we can survive toxic polarization if we focus on deeper connections. Peacemaking is a conscious effort to bind ourselves to one another, not in agreement on every issue, but in shared humanity and a commitment to endure the storm together. This is how we build pathways of understanding and compassion. This is how we become peacemakers.
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April Brooks
April serves as the Senior Content Manager for One America Movement. She is a lifelong learner and an avid observer of people. A proud living kidney donor and a passionate fan of God and her family, she loves the power of a well-written word. April and her husband Michael live in northeast Mississippi near Tupelo in a tiny house they are renovating themselves. They are active members of Lawndale Presbyterian Church, also in Tupelo. April holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Faulkner University and a Master’s in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.
