by Tiffany Aurora

[Note: The following reflection by a member of the 14-27 October CPT delegation to Iraq has been edited for length.  The complete version is available at http://www.cpt.org/blog/2010/10/20/delegation-northern-iraq-october-14-27-2010]

This autumn, as our delegation visited families in villages tucked away in the mountains along the Iranian border, we heard stories of how violence brought about by bombs, land mines, guns, and forced displacement had forever changed their lives.  They long for a day when they can walk outside their house to a plot of farmland instead of a fenced-off field of land mines.  They long for a day when they can leave a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and go home without fear that any house they build or produce they grow will be bombed.

We loved meeting these families.  We loved learning about their joys and sorrows.  And we were all struck with the complexity of the problems in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. There has been such a history of violence and there is so much distrust here.  It's hard to know where to begin promoting peace and reconciliation.

While the complexities can seem overwhelming, Scripture is full of stories of God protecting his people, providing solutions to problems that seemed overwhelming.  He often chose to provide this protection in really creative ways.

Humans forget that God is all-powerful and that the hearts of individuals, government leaders, and military commanders are ultimately subject to him.  In working to undo the effects of violence or helping to facilitate the healing process, it is tempting to forget that reconciliation can only happen when God reaches down and touches lives.  Any of our efforts apart from the work of God will be flawed and inadequate.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul calls on the church to accept persecution, and reminds his fellow believers, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood...but against the spiritual forces of evil." In other words, "If it bleeds, it's not your enemy."  If we are going to "get in the way" of violence, we have to remember that our enemy is not one made of flesh and blood.  We also have to remember that the only way to stop cyclical, systemic violence is through God reaching down and changing hearts. 

The situation here involves a conglomerate of ethnicities, national boundaries, religions, languages, political parties, economic challenges, urban vs. rural discrepancies and distrust between the different groups.  But let us not think that the situation is beyond the hand of our Almighty God. Maybe he doesn't want us to be able to boast "that our own strength has saved us."  Maybe He is waiting for us to open our hands, surrender all the pieces, and be willing to respond to his creative resolution with a faith that maintains the nonviolent consistency of Jesus.