Sabbath Devotional :: Conflict, Contention, and Courage

Today’s Sabbath Devotional muses on “Conflict, Contention and Courage” — peppered with quotes from Birthday Boy Abe Lincoln and others.

On February 12, Abraham Lincoln would have been 211 years old. Happy birthday, Abe! This remarkable man knew a lot about conflict, division, and the difficulties and rigors of unity. These are topics we MWEG women confront and wrestle with regularly.

Here are samples of his wisdom:

“You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.”

“It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.”

“A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections.”

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

“If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.”[1]

These timeless quotes resonate in our day (although blisters on backsides are not the only dire consequences of uninformed voting.)

One more folksy quote by Abe is this one:

“Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. . . . Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him.”[2]

As much as I love The Rail-Splitter, I’m not sure I agree with him on that one. It’s funny, I’ll give him that. And I understand what he’s getting at — mostly. But there’s another message embedded in there that isn’t so savory.

If by “giving your path to a dog” he means “capitulate” to your adversary, I think there’s more to conflict resolution than that.

In the same vein, consider this quote by President Russell M. Nelson given in April Conference, 1989: “As we dread any disease that undermines the health of the body, so should we deplore contention, which is a corroding canker of the spirit.”[3]

Here we need to be particular about what words mean. Is President Nelson saying that all of our relationships must be conflict-free? If that were the case, my marriage (the “opposites attract” love match of an artist — me — and a corporate tax attorney — my husband) is doomed.

Is he saying we should be constantly thinking in lock-step with our dearest friends? No.

Is he saying that swallowing our own opinions to defer to the dog/person/politician with the meanest growl is the solution to differences? No.

He’s talking about working out of our impulses the gnarled, venomous, mean-spirited concept of “contention.”

He’s talking about the same thing Jesus is in 3 Nephi 11: 29-20:

For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.

Conflict resolution — between loved-ones and rivals — is a muscular process of seeing one another as fellow children of God and working creatively toward some kind of harmony.

Easier said than done, right? What’s that popular meme? “We can do hard things!” Yup.

It is valuable to note that in the original Aramaic, Christ’s plea to: “Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you”[4] has a meaning of working to restore harmony with someone who has thrown you off kilter.[5] It has nothing to do with gooey emotion or squashing your own feelings or opinions.

Besides being a month of Presidential birth dates and Valentine’s Day which honors love with hearts and flowers, February is also Black History Month. To honor that, here is one last quote from Honest Abe:

“The man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children, and then sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hand.” Abraham Lincoln[6]

To all my sisters who work to ensure ethical government, take heart. Take a moment to re-read MWEG’s Principles of Peacemaking.[7] Pray for courage and determination. Study and think — then take action, fueled by love unfeigned. Sustain and encourage one another.

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[1] https://AZquotes.com/author/8880-Abraham_Lincoln

[2] (Letter to J. M. Cutts, 26 Oct. 1863, in Concise Lincoln Dictionary of Thoughts and Statements, comp. and arr. Ralph B. Winn, New York: New York Philosophical Library, 1959, p. 107.)

[3] “Canker of Contention” April 1989 General Conference

[4] Luke 6:27

[5] Neil Douglas-Klotz, “Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus”, Harper & Row, 1990

[6] www.brainyquote.com/authors/abraham-lincoln-quotes

[7] http://MormonWomenforEthicalGovernment.org/6-principles