Enemies and Conflicts 3 - My World View ...

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009. What is my world view with respect to enemies and conflicts? Do I look at the world as a world which is basically made out of conflicting people, conflicting nations, conflicting interests? Is my basic view such that I think I need to be strong to fight the others, I need to be strong to maintain or extend my position? There is the idea that the strong with inherit the earth, that those who are well trained, gifted and willing to go boldly into the fight will win and will reign over their territory.

There is a modern version of the world view of conflict. In the philosophy of our economic system those will win, who do best. Here, strength is made out of efficiency, it is made out of ideas. What was the art of building coalitions of war in former times is the art of consortia today. We have exchanged the word war against the word competition. It is no longer carried out by the sword, but by the force of sales numbers and money. Clearly, it is good that we have moved forward and violence has been transformed to a large extend into other levels of contest.

Of course it is not true, that those who are most gifted in something, will win. Usually, the processes and situation is much more diverse. It is more important to know the right people at the right time, than to be capable and gifted. It is more important to inherit some estate than to be willing to work hard - at least when we look at the result: even hard work cannot earn a house in many parts of our world today, but inheritance can. The proper network of people will open doors, but the gifted lonely will not win anything! And those who might be less gifted, have a bad start …

So far we took a glimpse into our world as it is usually perceived. We could spend hours to work this out for particular areas, for areas of business or for recent academic developments. But it is more important to look into a different world view. God's view onto the world is different. His kingdom consists of brothers and sisters, who are created to help each other. The pilgrimage of faith is a time where we learn the language of love, not the language of fight.

The language of love must become active in the middle of the conflicts and fights of our time. We will not be able to abolish all the conflicts. We are in the middle of them. We are part of society, and God wants to transform us right where we are. The Christian world view clearly sees all the conflicts of our world today. But is perceives them as darkness, if they do not receive light from the love of the eternal God.

God did not create this earth, such that we fight for everything, that everyone tries to take as much as possible from all the others. He did not create the earth to let us fight for even the basic food and housing needs every day from morning to evening. We are not made to act like robbers and thieves and liars from morning to evening. He created enough space for every human, enough resources for everyone and plenty of gifts such that we can develop the earth with all what is in it.

What is our world view? We got used to the fight, we have found our little nutshell to live in it and protect the little riches we have won. But the whole atmosphere needs to change. Let there be light! Let us live as brothers and sisters of faith, who share their life and their possessions - not led by rules which are imposed upon us, but by free choice to open our house and to share what we have. Let there be light in our social conflicts, our personal conflicts, and in the social setup around us. We can be a part of this light, when we live and move in faith! ... more texts