"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18 (NIV)

It wasn't supposed to be this way. All we wanted was for Jesus to show up on Sunday morning, haul a drowning Peter into a fishing boat, and then head off for children's church.

But we had a little problem. The six-year-old boy who had played Jesus throughout the previous week of Vacation Bible School, only to develop cold feet on Friday, informed us Saturday afternoon that he wanted to be Jesus after all. The problem was that we'd already given his part to another six-year-old boy in the class.

My wife and I thought about what to do, prayed, and then went for it. When Sunday morning rolled around, Amy broke the news to the "new" Jesus that the "old" Jesus had a change of heart and was going on after all. The "old" Jesus, his parents, and his brother had never been to a church before, so we hoped the "new" Jesus, a fixture of our youth programs, would graciously step aside.

You can probably guess what happened. It turned out that the "new" Jesus had been practicing for his role of a lifetime all weekend, and his grandparents were in church on Sunday morning to see their grandson walk on water. When we broke the news to the boy and his family, we got a less-than-warm reception. Even after we explained the difficult situation to his parents, nothing changed.

This story illustrates Paul's wisdom in this week's verse. There are some situations in which someone is going to get angry at you, and maybe even hold a grudge, for something beyond your control. Sometimes we have to make a difficult decision, explain it to those involved, and then await the flaming arrows. About all we can do in these cases is choose to be at peace with those taking aim.

— Matt Donnelly, for the ChristianityToday.com staff

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