Faith Venture

Two sides. Two people. Two groups.

Tension builds between them. Maybe it is mutual animosity. Or mutual fear. Or differing desires.

In my case, it is a game. Two teams are playing soccer. The referee approaches one of the coaches to inform her of a problem with a player. Maybe instead of making the encounter as brief as possible, the referee wants to explain more. The coach wants to tell the referee that she missed a foul.  One word leads to the next word. Suddenly it’s an argument. The referee ejects the coach.

A simple encounter that could have been brief. It escalates because no one can take a breath and calm.

Two groups of people live in an atmosphere of mutual distrust and even fear. The tension never leaves. Then there is an incident. Someone cannot take the tension any longer and strikes. Maybe with a weapon. The situation escalates. 

We face these situations, small or large, often.

How do we react? Can we be the adult in the room? The one who draws the deep breath, calms, defuses the brewing confrontation?

This entry was posted on October 12, 2023 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Attitude, Peace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.