War--or the aftermath, thereof--Lasts a Long Time

Kathy and I just watched the movie, The Darkest Hour. It is about Winston Churchill. My dad would have been fifteen years old when the Prime Minister of England made some of the speeches depicted in the film. Dad later fought in that war. It was a long time ago. Just this last week, though, a crew of young people was cutting brush and cleaning up some property, here on Guam. In that same war, one of our ships fired a shell in the battle to retake this island. It lay unexploded until this week. The clean-up crew found it, they called the Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, and more than seventy years after the shell was fired, more than forty years after the lone holdout of the Empire of Japan surrendered, that shell finally exploded. No one was hurt. War lasts a long time. That observation is not only true about wars between nations but about those personal battles we fight with evil without and within. I'm not foolish enough to think that the men and women of that WW2 era were perfect. They clearly weren't. Yet, there was a resolve about them we can learn from. They spoke of "monstrous evil," and days "that will live in infamy." The horrors of war were fresh in their memory, yet they had the wisdom to see the horror of surrender to evil, as well. They left behind more than unexploded ordinance, fields scarred by bombs, cemeteries marked with gleaming white crosses, and ships at the bottom of the sea. They left me a world filled with freedom and opportunity. Lord, as I face the battles before me, may I do so, realizing that I will bless, or curse, those who come after me. Give me the wisdom to choose what is right. Amen. It's STTA.

Remembering God's Image In The Face of Great Barbarity:

Something To Think About, Recognizing the Image of God:

War is a horrible thing.  William Tecumseh Sherman who perpetrated its horrors on a wide swath of the rebellious South said, "War is hell."  One of war's most hellish aspects is the treatment that prisoners of war often receive.  I recently read two books about the treatment of American P.O.W.s under the Japanese in WW2.  My uncle lost a lung and his sight as a result of his imprisonment in Germany.  How a nation treats its enemies when they are helpless to either inflict further harm or do anything to protect themselves, is a powerful indicator of the moral ethos of that people. Recent news about the brutal execution of  Jordanian pilot,  Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh  is a powerful indication of the lack of respect for human life on the part of the ISIS terrorists.  The video showing his death was not leaked.  It was slickly produced and released as a propaganda tool.  Americans, and Jordanians, among others, are rightly outraged. Some realities about life on this planet are made plain: Evil--monstrous evil--is a reality.  Humans are capable of committing unspeakable atrocities. Human life--even when that life is our enemy--bears the image of God.  I believe that some wars are just.  In fact I think there are times when it is wrong to not use force to restrain evil.  But even in times of war the basic reality that all human life is a reflection of our Creator must be kept in mind. The evil that we see exhibited so powerfully by the killing of Lt. Kasasbeh is not something that only resides in our enemy.  All of us are descendants of the original sinner, Adam.  I'm not saying we are just as bad as them.  The reality is, though, that the forces that have restrained evil among civilized people need to be respected and nurtured.  Unfettered evil is horrible beyond imagination. This is just the beginning of a conversation.  I hope it is taking place on the highest level in our nation.  I hope for you it is . . . Something to Think About.