Evil, good, and peace

Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. - Psalm 34v14

It sure sounds simple doesn't it?

Depart from evil.

Do good.

Seek and pursue peace.

How can something that sounds so easy be so difficult to carry out? None of these sound like they would be hard to carry out. We can all understand 'depart from evil.' We all know what 'do good' means. We all know the importance of 'seeking peace.'

The problem is that these things don't always suit our flesh and our desires. Us ugly and abhorrent as evil is it still has quite a draw. Doing good often means that I have to sacrifice my ways and my desires. Peace is not always easy to pursue.

The sad thing is that the root problem is obvious. Pride and self get in the way of departing from evil, doing good, and chasing peace. When evil looks appealing we want it no matter what. When good is difficult or inconvenient we don't want to do it. When peace gets in the way of our desires we ignore it.

When we have problems in these areas it is because we are focused on ourselves. Serving others and pleasing God are not always convenient to us. These things don't always please me and if they don’t please me than I can't be bothered.

Maybe its about time that we get ourselves out of the way and just do the right thing – depart from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it.