40 Faces, 40 Places: A Devotional JourneySample

Guy from Sheffield

Sometimes whole-life discipleship looks like gentle peacemaking.

My frontline is my job at a national retail organization’s head office. I feel God working through me whenever I model patience amidst conflicted social dynamics, or when I see others demonstrate grace in response to underperformance or self-centered conduct, or when I can facilitate reconciliation, cooperation, and shared purpose where otherwise conflict would prevail.

My faith calls me to be gentle when I address destructive or disruptive behavior and model consistently warm-hearted and accepting relationships in the face of conflict. I know not to take setbacks personally or be discouraged but to prayerfully review, learn, and reset. I’ve been surprised how this brings a positive response from people I wouldn’t expect and how goodwill can grow or re-grow even when there have been quite solid barriers.

One example of this was when a meeting was set up as an ambush to cause doubt about team competence. In that setting, modeling godly character meant working to help those people, not undermining them: acting as an intermediary, hearing from the participants, and applying an agreed structure to bring about change.

Everyone’s focus is on work. There’s very little personal talk, so I rarely mention my faith, and I wish I did so more. On busy days, I can easily forget about God. I’ve learned some listening techniques through a recent discipleship course which has helped me to be more alert to my faith in real-time.

Reflection

It’s all too easy to get swept up into the prevailing atmosphere of our frontlines. Sometimes, like Guy, our role is to demonstrate something different. Sometimes, with God blessing our stumbling best efforts, the prevailing atmosphere changes for the better.

It’s also easy to get swept into the busyness and unintentionally sideline our faith. What reminders can we create to point ourselves back to God in the middle of a crazy day?

When stress abounds, prayer acts as a built-in reset function. Taking time out to pray at the start of the day and in quiet moments helps recalibrate us to our Maker’s instructions.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for the surprising power of gentle peacemaking. Help me be one of Your blessed peacemakers whenever the need arises. I’m sorry for the times when I forget You on my frontline. Help me put practices in place to make them less frequent. Lord, thank You that prayer acts as a reset. I need that today to see things Your way.