About

 

And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

Jeremiah 29:7

Shalom in the City is a blog that believes peacemaking is the primary way to see changes in our families, neighborhoods, cities, and world. Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace with a richer fuller picture of the world at her best: flourishing, unified, and vibrantly whole. A Peacemaker, or Shalom Sista,  lives everyday to see this picture realized in her context.

Peacemaking looks different for every woman in every stage, but there are a few essentials to being Peacemakers,  that, if forgotten, will cause me to say, “hold my purse, hold my earrings!”

1. People are more important than theological, political, or philosophical positions.

2: People are never the enemy.

3. We belong to each other. Peacemaking is in our spiritual DNA, that’s why we’re sometimes, called “Shalom Sistas”.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”

Mother Teresa

4. Words are tools for building, not weapons for defending.

5. If you don’t have the words, then offer your presence. Listening always heals brokenness.

6: Peacemaking may include pacifism, or non-violence, but it is never passive. When faced with injustice we simply refuse to do nothing. We speak up. We advocate. We learn. We ask for forgiveness. We give our time, money, and energy for wholeness. We do so with love and never with violence- in word or in deed.

7. Life isn’t about comfort and neither is peacemaking. It can be painful and exhausting. We are bridge-builders and sometimes facilitating reconciliation between ourselves and “the other” hurts, but don’t give up! This tribe will always be here to encourage you when you feel bruised.

8. There’s no room for divisions. At all. We actively break down all labels that divide, including suburban/urban, black/white, rich/poor, citizen/undocumented, educated/uneducated, and so many more.

Forgetting this will cause me to exclaim, “Hold my purse.  Hold my earrings!”

We believe a Shalom Sista can and should practice peace wherever she is, but we’ll often explore what it looks like seek the peace of your closest major city, which inevitably shapes the culture of the (suburban and rural) communities surrounding it.

We believe peacemaking is a lifestyle. Small, ordinary, everyday choices to live at peace, like speaking kindness when threatened, practicing self-care so you have energy to respond with patience towards your babies, building an authentic relationship with someone who is different than you, and so many more practices of peace, matter.

We believe in wholeheartedness. A whole woman creates a whole world around her. A Shalom Sista knows she is enough.  Right now, exactly as she is.  Nothing she says or does can make her more eligible to be a Peacemaker.  Nothing she says or does can take away her unique gifts that makes the world around her a more sparkly place. Nothing she says or does can disqualify her from practicing Shalom.

“Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.”  Brene Brown

Shalom in the City advocates for, protects, and upholds all of the above, and I’ll write about many topics with this “Peacemaker’s lens” or “Shalom Sista’s spectacles”.  And while I’ll often write from a Neo-Anabaptist Christian perspective, I welcome all readers who want to be part of this Shalom-seeking community, regardless their worldview, faith, gender, geographical location, life stage, or any other variable. You are all my Shalom Sistas!

Anything less would be encouraging division and once more for the cheap-seats…

Hold my purse, hold my earrings!!!

(in the most pacifist, peacemaking way possible.)