4. The Courage to Engage Your Faith and Be a Peacemaker

In this inspiring episode of Courageous Retirement, Vona Johnson discusses the unique role retirees can play in fostering peace in the world. Drawing from her faith and a recent experience at the Let Freedom Fly Air Show, Vona explores the importance of standing up for what is right and living out Christian values. She addresses contemporary issues, encourages spending time in the Bible, and emphasizes the courage needed to be a peacemaker. Vona also introduces her books 'A Different View' and 'Equipped for More,' offering resources to help retirees live purposefully and faithfully.

00:00 Introduction to Courageous Retirement
00:41 The Air Show Experience
01:58 Reflecting on Historical Courage
02:29 Modern Battles for Peace
03:33 Living Out Our Faith Boldly
05:32 The Importance of Scripture
07:27 Challenging Worldly Beliefs
11:57 Resources for Spiritual Growth
14:38 Traits of an Effective Peacemaker
16:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Spripture referenced in the show are all from the New Living Translation:
1 Peter 3:16
Romans 10:13

Download the resources to improve your habits to boldly live your faith here. 

Learn more about the books, A Different View and Equipped for More here. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to Engage Your Faith and Live Your More!

To watch the video, check out my YouTube Channel!

Learn more about the show, author Vona Johnson, and more at CourageousRetirement.com!

Transcript

Vona Johnson: 0:00

Peace. We all claim to want it in the world. But are we actively engaged in trying to make peace in the world? In today's episode of Courageous Retirement, I am going to show how we, of retirement age are the best equipped to help make peace in the world and how we can be more effective at becoming peacemakers. I hope you'll join us. Do you fear what lies beyond retirement? What if it's a gateway to a life filled with purpose, meaning, and adventure rather than an end? Discover peace and fulfillment as you boldly enter this new chapter in Courageous Retirement, a Christian podcast. I'm your host, author and coach, Vona Johnson. Let's get started. Recently, I was blessed to be able to attend a local air show. The Let Freedom Fly Air Show here in Pierre, South Dakota. It was really a world-class event that rarely would happen in rural South Dakota as it did. And we had thousands of people that came to enjoy the acrobats and the planes. And it was really an incredible event. As I walked through that event and saw all of the old planes and some of the newer planes, but just marvel at the how the history of aeronautics has evolved. That in itself was incredible. Then when we saw the planes in the air and the various things that they could do. I just marveled at the courage that it took for those pilots that day to fly those planes either there. Uh, incredible feats that they would take, you know, going straight up and then spiraling down, turning their engines off and landing without power. Or honestly, Jumping into a plane that is hundreds of years old and, or a hundred years or more old. And I've been sitting in a museum and to hop in that plane and fly it to this show and do the demonstration was courage enough. But then I got to thinking about the people who flew those planes, those war planes, in actual battles. And the courage that it had to take for those sometimes 18 to 20 year old boys. Young man. To be able to get within the cockpit of that aircraft and go and fight for our freedom. For the peace that our country has always espoused as something that we we've we've wanted. In today's world. We still are fighting the battle for peace. When you think about the battles that those young men fought, they were fighting evil. They were jumping in planes and going across the world to fight those such as Hitler and Stalin and those people who wanted to eradicate anything or anybody that was different from them. Or that they thought would get in the way of them being able to further their purposes. Today's battles for peace are much different. The war against evil. Is being fought right here in our, our own home country. Today. I want to talk about in, in the last section, a different view, I'm going to talk about people like you and me and how we can be effective as being peacemakers. But before that, I want to talk about peace and how it starts with us. And how we must turn away from evil. We must become. a people who stand up for, for what is right. Courageous Retirement is all about living out our faith. It takes courage to do many things, but mostly it takes courage to talk about our faith and you will hear debates from different people on different sides of the coin as to whether we should just demonstrate what living a faithful life looks like, or should we stand out and be bold in our, our voice and talk about our faith. And I'm here to say that I think it's both. I think that. Um, we should be ready at all times as in 1 Peter 3:16, it says that we need to be ready to talk boldly about our faith. But do so gently and respectfully. And, and truly, I believe that that is something that we always need to be ready to do is to talk about our faith. We need to be able to reflect the light and the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And truly that's what my book, A Different View was all about was how we realized that the world is an evil place and that we, if we redefine our priorities and start leaning into God and His Word, we can gain the courage that we need to, to speak up. Because let's face it. We don't know when we're going to go. We don't know when our loved ones are going to go. But death in and of itself is not our greatest fear. Our greatest fear is having someone or ourselves die without knowing that we are going to go to heaven. I mean, truly that is, that is what we're fighting against. And sadly, there are many people out there in the world today who are trying to take us I mean, Maybe not intentionally, but they're getting us to focus on things other than God's Word. They're trying to convince people that God's Word isn't his, his lasting Word and that, that it's not relevant in today's world. And nothing could be further from the truth. And so. I'm just going to, um, challenge you to think about this verse out of Romans 10:13. And it says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone. But how can they call on him? To be saved if they've never believed in him. And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them. And how can anyone go and tell them without being sent? And truly that's what the Bible does is it sends us out to tell people about Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. There are going to be some that will tell you that to follow Jesus, you will prosper and you will be wealthy and everything will go your way in the world. Others will tell you that if you believe in Jesus Christ, that your sickness will go away and you will be healed and that there will be no more strife in your life. Others will tell you that there won't be any pain. There won't be any suffering. But that's, that's not necessarily true. The Bible tells us that we will suffer and we will suffer for Christ. So when we talk about living our life for christ or sharing our faith. We need to do both. And we need to show people that Christ is in our life. We need to be able to be in the Word so that we can explain the hope that we have in Christ. Good living isn't enough. It saddens me because I hear people. Talk about how they don't want to be called a Christian anymore because of the bad name of what some who claim to be Christians are doing in the world. If you think about the beatitudes. Um, it's totally upside down. It's totally different than what the world will tell us, but there are those who want to believe that everything will be wonderful. And it's not necessarily the case. I'm here to challenge you to not let the world shame you into believing things that are not biblical. But to get into the Word yourself. If someone is telling you that you only need to listen to them and to not worry about what scripture says, don't listen to them. If someone's telling you, oh, don't worry about that. That part of the Bible, because that's not relevant anymore. Don't listen to them. They are telling you what they want you to believe or they may be telling you what you want to believe. And I'm going to challenge you to the only way you will know the difference is if you are in the Word and you trust God. And you believe that everything he says is true. It's so different than what the world wants us to believe. The world wants us to think that to have an abortion is our right as a women. But that's not true. God wants us to trust him when we get pregnant, know that he will carry us through that. And he will. He will take care of the details. If we lean on him and we trust him. He wants us to believe that our children who are mixed up and don't understand how they could be so confused about their identity just need to go have an operation and get that fixed. I know I'm simplifying that, but the reality is that God made them male and female. And he's not confused about that. And he doesn't want us to be confused about that. And no parent who believes and loves Jesus should ever try and claim that that's a child's decision. They need to get those children into the Word so that they can know God's truth. The problem is that, not every parent believes in Jesus and not every parent is going to lean on the truth and that's where we come in. Those of us who love Jesus and know Jesus need to be able to have the courage to speak up and talk about what truly is God's truth and to do so in love. To do so kindly to do so gently. Not every time we open our mouth. Not every time we're with the people that we love but in the holy spirit nudges us that direction. And we'll know when that happens. He will give us the words as well. So we need to be in the Word so that we can know where, what scriptures to lean on in those difficult times. We need to trust in God and not man. And that's something that the world does not want us to do. They want us to trust in ourselves. There are so many do it, yourself projects, and so many Christian books that tell you how you can fix yourself or you can fix your loved one. It's not the truth. Again, We lean on the Word we lean on the holy spirit to lead people back to them. All we do is share that truth kindly and let him take care of it. We don't fix anyone. What I encourage you to do is in this evil world so many people are just wrapped up in watching the news all the time and worry about what's coming and how in the world could we survive in this. This evil world with elections coming in, people are just yelling and screaming at one another. Sometimes. If not in person. Maybe. On social media. And I'm just going to challenge you to stop focusing on all of those things. Stop the fight, lay down your, your pen, your typewriter, and just walk away from some of those ugly conversations. If you have something that needs to be said to someone, God will give you that opportunity, but it's not going to generally be on social media. It's going to be. One-on-one around the dining room table or at work or when you're out for a walk with a dear friend and they say something that really makes you question. Those are the conversations that you need to lean into and to trust God to lead you. I'm going to challenge you to, instead of focusing on evil and brokenness to focus on Christ and the beauty of the world that God has created. The miracles that demonstrates that he is sovereign and he can and will make everything work out for his good. If we trust him. Jesus was going to give you the courage that you need. In the moment that you need it and the peace that comes from just knowing that it's not all on you and that you can trust him. Is a peace that passes all understanding. Now. I'm going to challenge you right now that if you, this is kind of a new concept for you and you haven't been spending time in the Word. I'm going to challenge you to consider taking a look at my book Equipped for More. Yes. A different view is a beautiful book. And it really tells us why we need to be in the Word, but Equipped for More tells us how we need to lean in and trust God so that we can boldly and live out our faith. I encourage you to download, uh, some, some resources that I have that go along with the book Equipped for More. And one of them is just the first chapter of the book. The title of the book itself is Equipped for More: 10 Essential Habits to Stop Your Doubts and Fear of Judgment so You Can Boldly Live Your Faith. And, and truly that's what, what Courageous Retirement is all about is bolding living our faith. But if you go to the link at vonajohnson.com/free. You will be able to have access to some resources that I have available there. I have a list of devotions that might be a great place to start. If you're not spending time in the Word already. There's also a kind of a habit tracker to help you get into the habits that are going to help you boldly live out your faith. The first one is to be in the Bible and it will just help you kind of start kick start that habit. If you're not already there, you will also, there's some, a habit of just being still in listening to God. To increase your prayer life. Those are just some of the things that you'll find in the book. And I really encourage you to, to check those resources out, because I think that they will help you come closer to God. This is not a flip the switch and everything is better. In fact, You will continue to grow and appreciate Jesus Christ in the work that he has done for us more and more every day throughout the rest of your life. This faith journey is not across the finish line and you're done. This is always taking the next step. And trusting and growing in faith. So don't be discouraged if you've tried this thing, this thing called faith, and it didn't work out the way you thought it would. Just keep coming back to it. If you start reading the Bible in a year and you've got out of the habit, start again. That's a big, that's a big thing. I've been studying the Bible for decades, and I'm only just now doing the reading of Bible in a year. And. I still find it challenging. So anyway, I encourage you to download the habit tracker and other resources. Again, that's at VonaJohnson.com/free, and I will put the link in the show notes for this episode. Now it's time for my favorite section of this show. Earlier I mentioned the, that, um, I wanted to share the effective traits of a peacemaker, and I'm going to share those with you right now. Are you a peacemaker? Are you actively pursuing peace and building good relationships? Or do you shrink away from difficult situations and difficult conversations? Do you hide from, places where you might have to actually engage in a conversation that makes you uncomfortable. I'm going to challenge you to tackle some of those situations before they occur. If you truly want to be an effective peacemaker, you must bring conflict out into the open and deal with it before it becomes unmanageable. This is really hard work. But you must search for it and you must work to maintain peace. When we talk about peace in the world, we're talking about peace in our heart and the peace that we can share with others so that they can have that in their heart to, I do not believe that there will ever be a time when there is not war on this side of heaven but I do believe that there will be a time when everyone who loves Jesus understands that the peace beyond all understanding comes from him and being in the Word. And so I just challenge you to be courageous, to continue to share the hope that you have in Christ. I want to thank you for stopping by today. It's been such a pleasure to share this message with you. I pray that you will, if you're not already, become a peacemaker and will continue to find ways that you can interject, gently and kindly, help people to find that peace that we all long for. It takes courage. Not the kind of courage that it takes to fly an F 16 or an ancient airplane into battle. No, it takes courage to speak against what the world is going to tell us is true. But I know that you can do it with Jesus. How do I know? Because he helped me share this message with you today. I hope you will come back in a couple of weeks where we will continue this conversation about Courageous Retirement. I have so many great guests to share with you and I look forward to seeing you back here the next time. Until then I pray that you will engage your faith and always, always live your more.