Jon Huckins - Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World

FOREWORD

Lynne Hybels

I was in northern Iraq, in the home of a Muslim sheik. My two North American friends and I had been invited to share a meal with a dozen Muslim clerics. As we sat in a huge circle on the floor, hands deep into a feast of juicy chicken, seasoned rice, and brilliantly colored salads, our new friends poured out their hearts about the suffering of their country.

Please tell Americans that ISIS does not represent us.

Our peoplemen, women, and childrenare being ruthlessly murdered.

Here, take these prayer beads. Please join us in praying for peace.

Silently, I turned my face back and forth from speaker to translator, tears brimming.

After dinner, we sipped sweet mint tea as our host moved from the litany of despair to the poetry of hope. With eyes closed, the sheik began to sing, softly at first, but quickly building to a crescendo of joy. People began to smile, then laugh. New friends! Heartfelt conversation! A shared commitment to a better future! A vision of peace!

I fingered the prayer beads and slowly scanned the room. Was this really happening? And more to the point, how did a small-town Michigan girl end up in war-torn Iraq listening to a roomful of Muslim clerics and a singing sheik?

The truth is, it wasnt my first time in a war zone. In the early 1990s, as the former Yugoslavia crumbled amidst a series of horrific wars, I visited a medical center in Croatia where devastated civilians stared into space like zombies. In Bosnia I met children so traumatized from watching their parents murdered that they sat all day in school silently chewing their fingernails or drawing pictures of death.

Years later in the Democratic Republic of Congo I met with women brutally raped by rebel soldiers who concluded it was cheaperand more effectiveto rape a woman than waste a bullet on killing her. Rape enough women, they reasoned, and you can destroy the soul of an entire village.

Later still I was challenged by Middle Eastern Christians to better understand the deadly conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. So I traveled to the Holy Land repeatedly, listening and learning. From there I went on to visit Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, where millions fleeing the violence of war crossed country borders in the dark of night with bullets chasing them.

At the time, each of these trips seemed like a one-offsingular and unrelated responses to unexpected invitations. Only in retrospect did the pattern of my travels become clear.

I am convinced I was divinely led from conflict to conflict for two simple reasons: (1) to see up close the horrific repercussions of unchecked conflict, and (2) to learn from heroic, honest-to-goodness peacemakers. These two lessonsalong with the words in our own Scriptures that call us to peaceconvinced me that peacemaking is a vital part of Christian discipleship.

And now here I am, a lot older and a little wiser. While I still feel an undeniable call to conflict zones, Ive discovered I dont always have to travel far to find one. The lessons I learned on foreign soils have challenged me to give greater attention to escalating conflicts much closer to home.

Sadly, I live in a country that feels increasingly polarized into divisive factions, even at war with itself. A country where increasing numbers of residents are seen and treated as the frightening other. A country where public discourse routinely devolves into hateful, soul-shaming words. A country desperately in need of grassroots peacemakersordinary people offering words of love around every dinner table, showing up at places of pain in every neighborhood, scattered broadly throughout every church congregation, gently speaking up on every social media site, earnestly seeking divine wisdom as they speak truth to power.

One of the blessings of my meandering journey across conflict zones was meeting Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart. They had learned from many of the same global peacemakers Id encountered, and they were articulating those lessons in a way that applied every day and everywherefrom private interpersonal disagreements to deadly international conflicts.

I couldnt help but ask, Do you guys have these teachings written down somewhere?

Im sure Im not the only person who asked that question, but I had the pleasure of being one of the first to read the finished product. And I love every word! This book is theologically compelling, richly personal, and intensely practical. And I can guarantee this: If you read it with an open heart, you will be transformed. Youll have new eyes to see the humanity, dignity, and image of God in everyone. And youll be eager to join the growing army of peacemakers whoto quote Jon and Jerare building uncommon friendships and getting creative in love.

Together, lets accept the challenges issued so brilliantly by these two young peacemakers. Lets mend the divisions we face personally and build bridges of understanding to those who are different from us. In so doing, well be following in the way of Jesus and furthering the healing work of God in this beautiful but broken world.