As I reflect back on my weekend and what I’ve come to learn in my faith tradition, peacemaking is not peacekeeping.

Peacekeeping is easy. It costs nothing. It requires only a head nod, keeping one’s mouth shut, a preservation of the status quo, flexible knees, propped-up feet, and a heart unwilling to change. But peacemaking is costly. It requires deep thought, innovation, creativity within community, an open mouth, steady knees, ready feet, and a heart willing to change and forgive.

Peacemaking is the act of disrupting injustices and a stubborn refusal to let hate win. Peacekeeping is the act of complicity to injustice and a stubborn refusal to let love liberate us all.

The reality of the moment is we can’t have both.