The price of Disharmony ?

Hello again

I am writing this blog as we near the end of the first phase of matches in the group stages of the World Cup in South Africa 2010. In passing I would like to say what a wonderful "carnival" it has been so far in a breathtakingly beautiful country. Having visited South Africa on a number of occasions it is fitting that Africa at last gets its chance to stage "the greatest show on earth" !

Needless to say that if you are an England fan you may be feeling a bit down in the dumps at the moment (at least we are unbeaten !) but there is always hope and the team have one last chance to make it through to the next round on Wednesday. Let's all give them a big cheer !

I was intrigued to see the chaos that has descended on the French team's camp in the last few days. One of their star players Nicholas Anelka has been sent home after a tiff with the manager and the TV showed footage of another player having to be restrained after a dispute with one of the coaching staff ! The manager issued a statement saying that the team refused to train as a protest against one of their star players being sent home ! So where has this left the French team ? Well struggling to qualify for the next round certainly, and giving their next opponents an incentive to believe that they can beat "an house divided amongst itself". No doubt if the French team do go out of the competition there will be all kinds of recriminations the manager against the players, the players against the manager, the French news and sporting media, The French football association, the supporters even the government gets involved in these kind of "post mortems"  !

I think in our own lives we all know the price of disharmony. It leads to relationship break ups, loss of jobs, loss of friendships, breakdown of communication and just a terrible sense of waste and sadness ! Yes it's easy to fall into the trap of disharmony and strife, after all we live in a "stressed out" world that wants instant gratification of its desires ? We live in a "click button" society that demands instant solutions to its problems.
For some people disharmony is a way of life with neighbours, with family members, with authority, just with life in general. But, as the French football team may be about to find out, one pays an high price for such disharmony ! Remember footballers only get one chance every four years to play in the World Cup, very few players play in more than three in their lifetimes !

Perhaps for the modern day footballer cushioned as most of them are by vast material worth this matters little ? But for the average person in the street, the consequences of disharmony and strife can be huge, ask anyone who has been through a painful divorce !

The Bible describes Jesus as "The Prince of Peace" meaning that for him strife, discord and disharmony were things to be avoided at all cost. Remember my quote earlier "an house divided amongst itself" well I think the full quote includes "will not prosper". Now that's worth pondering for a moment ? Even if you have no belief in God that has to be a self evident fact that disharmony leads to division leads to destruction. I recall seeing a TV quiz recently where three contestants had amassed an huge sum of money about 75,000 pounds I think ?
At the end of the quiz they had a set amount of time to apportion the monies between themselves while the clock ticked down. Well the inevitable happened and they lost the lot due to not being able to agree who had contributed the most to their win. Now there may have been other factors operating there pride, greed, arrogance but the core issue was the inability to agree and compromise. Instead of taking a large sum of money home they went home "with nothing" ( to use Anne Robinsons's immortal words ! PS it was not her show).

So, in closing today, I would ask you to ponder on times when you have experienced strife and disharmony in your own life ? What were the consequences ? Was it worth it ? I am sure that for most of us the answer will be no.

Well one answer has been suggested here and that is to follow the path of peace. I know it isn't always easy but it does make sense and might even lead to great riches in this life and the next!

Thanks for reading this.

God Bless !

Oliver

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