Chicago had a problem. In the 1860’s Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world.[i] All those people produced a lot of waste which was dumped raw into the Chicago River. The river became so polluted that it was said “a chicken could run across it without getting her feet wet.[ii] The toxic river flowed into Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan was Chicago’s source of fresh water. Do you see the problem? It’s the water cycle gone wrong. The people of Chicago were dying from Typhoid and Cholera because of the polluted drinking water.
Chicago decided to fix this problem by reversing their river. Instead of dumping all that waste into their drinking water they got it to flow the opposite direction, an accomplishment recognized by The American Society of Engineers as the Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium.
We have a problem too. Our relationships can get messy. Left untreated, the toxic flow will cycle back to us in destructive ways. We need to reverse the river.
Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Peace is what should flow through our relationships. When it doesn’t, it drains us. But just how do you reverse a river? It’s a big project. Romans 12 is a helpful guide.
(I know, the human waste illustration is a bit graphic, and we will keep coming back to it throughout this study. But it is no messier than the relational disfunction that it illustrates. So, it’s fitting.)
HOW TO REVERSE A RIVER: 3 PRACTICES FOR LIVING AT PEACE WITH ALL PEOPLE
PRACTICE 1: LEAD WITH LOVE
It turns out that the way we treat people actually influences the level of peace we enjoy with them. This is so basic. To promote peace with people we must lead with love. Romans 12:10 calls us to, “love one another with brotherly affection.”
This leading with love is describes as…
- Being Genuine– Verse 9 “Let love be genuine.”
- Showing Honor– Verse 10 “Outdo one another in showing honor.”
- Meeting Needs– Verse 13 & 20 “Contribute to the needs of the saints” & “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”
- Empathizing– Verse 15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”
- Being Humble– Verse 16 “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
This is leading with love. How far would these behaviors go in promoting peace in our relationships?
In all of Chicago’s interventions they continued to dump raw sewage into their river. Stopping the toxic practice seems like it should be the first step, but Chicago didn’t begin efforts for waste treatment until 1929.[iii] Leading with love is the ideal of not dumping waste into the river in the first place. Shut off the toxic flow and lead with love.
Their waste no longer flowed into their source of drinking water but it still flowed, the water had to go somewhere. The reversed Chicago River dumped into the Mississippi. People downstream didn’t appreciate that very much. Farmers filed claims for damages. St. Louis filed an injunction that made its way to the supreme court where it was overruled in favor of Chicago. The mess was at a level that a biologist working 60 miles southwest of Chicago in 1911 described the river as (Warning! It’s disgusting.) “Putrescent masses of soft, graying and blackish, slimy material, loosely held together by threads of fungi”. [iv] We can make elaborate interventions but if we don’t stop pouring out the toxin the mess remains. It may flow a different direction, but the mess still flows. Leading with love stops our contribution to the toxic flow.
Identify a relationship in which you do not enjoy peace. Apply the council of Romans 12. What could you do to show them honor? What would happen if you went out of your way to meet their needs? What if you actively sought to show them hospitality? What if you empathized with them? What if you shared in their joy or pain? What if you could eliminate pride from your interactions? This is reversing the river and cleaning it up too! If we lead with love in these ways, it will promote peace like crazy.
Leading with love does not guarantee that love will be reciprocated. Here is what it does do: 1) It cuts off the flow of toxin from us. 2) It sets an example that others are invited to follow. 3) It establishes the boundary that you will no longer engage in the mess. They can go there, but they will be alone.
Leading with love is proactive. We cannot just shut off the toxic flow. We must turn on the love. Have you met those people who just seem to attract conflict and crisis? They say things like, “It just finds me”; “I wasn’t doing anything wrong”; or “I was just minding my own business.” Peace is not about minding your own business; it’s about leading with love. To a great degree, conflict and crisis find us because we haven’t been proactively leading with love. We must put love in gear because neutral doesn’t get us anywhere.
Leading with love is what Jesus did when he came to us. While we were still sinners and enemies of God, he loved us (Romans 5:8-10). He didn’t sit back in heaven and say, “I’m minding my own business”. Instead, he did everything possible to live at peace with all people. Jesus led with love. If we want peace, we can start here.
PRACTICE 2: RESPOND WITH LOVE
Leading with love is the ideal but when the river has already been messed up, we must respond.
Romans 12 includes 4 verses that essentially say, “don’t respond to wrong with more wrong.” Then the texts suggest these peace promoting, river reversing responses.
- Bless the Offender– Verse 14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”
- Behave Honorably– Verse 17 “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.”
- Leave Judgement to God– Verse 19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.”
- Overcome Evil with Good– Verse 21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This is more than refraining from bad, it’s responding with love.
So much of the bad we do happens in our response. The moment peace was destroyed was not when the car broke down but when we got angry about it. The anxiety in the car is not because we are running late but because we are dwelling on our tardiness and resenting those around us for it. The real fight doesn’t break out when we are pushed but when we push back. The peace is still available when we are insulted by our boss. It vanishes when our passive aggression payback pollutes the office for the next month. Our response is the arena where peace is won or lost.
That messy problem that began in Chicago 150 years ago is still a problem. The drinking water is much safer but the intervention of reversing the river had some unintended consequences. By connecting the Chicago River with the Mississippi, the eastern half of the U.S. became one big island. The waters of the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico are now connected. The human waste problem became an invasive species problem. Since the reversal the Asian Carp has threatened the entire ecosystem of the Great Lakes.
Chicago entertained some innovative ideas for how to respond to this new threat. The proposals and experiments included zapping the carp with radiation, dumping nitrogen into the water to poison the fish, and building a massive filtration system. I am not a biologist, but I can imagine some further unintended consequences in these responses. How we respond matters.
Eventually Chicago decided to electrocute the river. That’s right. First, they used it as an open sewage, then they reversed it and finally they electrocuted it. The series of electric barriers is designed to discourage the fish from passing into Lake Michigan where they would threaten a $7 billion fishing industry.[v]
It’s still messy. Each year $2 billion are spent to prevent Asian Carp from migrating into the Great Lakes. In January 2021 the governors of Michigan and Illinois agreed to collaborate on a project to work with the U.S. Army Corps of engineers to provide further protection against the invasive species. The project is expected to be completed in 2030 and will include more electric barriers, underwater sound to scare away the fish, an air bubble curtain and the sound and a flushing lock to send the larva and eggs downstream.[vi]
Each intervention has unintended consequences. If we respond to evil with evil, the mess will not go away it will only evolve to new forms because of our wrong responses. When they dump sewage in the river don’t respond by introducing an invasive species. These responses lead down a series of unintended negative consequences like David experienced after his sin with Bathsheba. Peace is preserved or destroyed in our response. Respond with love.
I don’t use measuring utensils when I make food. Sometimes I get carried away with the garlic or I attempt to sprinkle salt, but I dump it instead. One response would be to call it a loss and start over. I never do that. Instead, I quadruple all the other ingredient to balance the flavor. Sometimes it works. Most of the time the food still turns out bad, only there is four times as much of it. To promote peace with all people we must respond with the best action as early as possible.
If we aim for peace, it doesn’t matter who started it. Have you had that conversation with a kid before? It goes like this, “well he started it” … “I don’t care who started it. What you did was wrong.” If it’s making everyone miserable it doesn’t really matter who started it. What matters is choosing to respond with love.
Responding with love doesn’t mean we take abuse with no effort to protect ourselves. Matthew 18 outlines some strong steps to take when another believer sins against us. It is right to set boundaries and take measures for our own safety. But none of this should ever fall outside on the bounds of responding with love.
Sometimes, the wrong we are responding to wasn’t done by them, it was us. When it’s us who did the wrong it still matters how we respond. We can respond with shame, defensiveness or avoidance or we can respond with love. We can own it, confess, apologize and work to make our wrong right.
Here, again, Jesus is our example. He was in the position of responding to the sin problem. He considered all the unintended consequences, then he responded with love. We sinned. He designed a perfect plan to redeem us. We beat him, mocked him, spit on him and killed him. He endured the cross for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). He could have stayed in heaven and said, “They started it.” To every bit of evil ever done God has only responded with love.
PRACTICE 3: RECOGNIZE WHEN MUTUAL PEACE ISN’T POSSIBLE
Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Notice the words that come before “live peaceably with all” … “if possible”… “so far as it depends on you”. Peace with all isn’t always possible. The Chicago River is never going back to what it was before the 1860’s, it’s impossible. If we don’t recognize when peace is impossible, we will wear ourselves out trying to secure it. The very effort to make peace can destroy our peace when that peace is not possible. It is the recognition that it is not possible that allows us to move forward in peace. We must adjust our expectation. Instead of insisting on peace with them we must have peace without them. It is not as good as sharing our peace with them, but it is better than sharing in their misery.
Maybe your peace is compromised because you aren’t recognizing the impossibility. Peace with them may be possible in the future. But when it is not yet available, we must have peace in knowing we have done everything possible, so far as it depends on us.
Once again, Jesus is our example. He came as the prince of peace to bring peace to everyone. But some have rejected it. It hurts Jesus. It has caused him to weep (Matthew 23:37). Jesus has all authority on heaven and earth, and he didn’t force peace. It’s not always possible for us either.
New Heart Required
The peace promoting life we have considered is not possible on our own. It’s only possible for us to lead with love because Jesus already has; “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Responding to others with love is first a response to God. It requires a converted, spirit-filled heart. We can’t live at peace with all people in the way Romans 12 describes without God living in us. This gospel change is what the first 11 chapters of Romans are all about.
REVERSE THE RIVER
The conclusion is to “overcome evil with good”. When our relationships reach a dangerously toxic level, we need a miracle of God to reverse the river, to push back the evil flowing toward us with the good flowing through us.
As messy as it’s been, the people of Chicago find much good in their river. They have reversed more than the direction of its flow. Today the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Greater Chicago treats 1.3 billion gallons of sewage each day and has helped the river become cleaner than it has been in 150 years.[vii] The river is now a peaceful backdrop to the activities of the city. It is a place of recreation and enjoyment.
Interestingly, they still have a habit of dumping stuff in the river. But now it is done in celebration. It started on St. Patrick’s Day in 1962 when the river was first dyed green (They were aiming for the color green, not to be environmentally green). Each year, nearly half a million spectators gather to see the river transformed.[viii] It has been dyed other colors to express other celebrations. It really is a powerful visual of the river’s reversal. A century ago, the river was a visible threat to human health and the environment. Today, the river is a visible expression of celebration. The relationship struggles that drain us could be reversed to give peace! Reverse the river. Overcome evil with good. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18).
[i] Walter Nugent. “Demography” in Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society.
[ii] Oops, Our Bad – 99% Invisible (99percentinvisible.org) This podcast episode is where I first heard the story of the reversal of th Chicago River.
[iii] How Chicago Reversed Its River: An Animated History | The Chicago Tour with Geoffrey Baer | WTTW Chicago
[iv] The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Libby Hall
[v] New Study Finds Asian Carp Threat to Lake Michigan Is Greater Than Previously Thought – Alliance for the Great Lakes
[vi] Project to block Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan moves forward (phys.org)
[vii] Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (mwrd.org)