To war or not to war

Power is like acid on metal.  It will corrupt, and do it quickly.


We can wish that everyone who is given power uses it to the benefit of all mankind. That won't make it so.

People will convince themselves that their motives are honorable and their actions necessary - no matter what it all looks like to the rest of the world.  We are convinced that at the core, in our heart, we are good, generous people......until we are not.

Human beings take care of themselves and their own self interests. We are blind to the evil that lies within each of us, waiting  to be expressed.  We say, with confidence, "I'd never do that" and then when pushed up against the wall, we go right ahead and do it.  And feel justified; feel no need for repentance, amendment of life, reparation to the victims.

Nations are the sum total of their citizens.  The US has been blessed with a history of balancing interests and relying on situations to right themselves and yet the Civil War points us to a time when our own system failed us.  We couldn't solve that one without killing hundreds of thousands of our own citizens; our social system continues to struggle to right itself and offer true equality to all.

Therefore, we do not have all the answers for all the nations because we are made up of self-interested humans just like they.

The people of Syria and Egypt are struggling mightily against the self-interests of people whose use of power can not be trusted, operating in systems that do not offer the potential for peaceful resolution.

I have no answers, only prayers.  Many will die in this struggle of darkness and light, so I pray for the leaders of all nations that they might have wisdom, courage, discernment and patience.....and a good dose of humility would help as well.

Lord have mercy.

Lincoln again....giving thanks

Lincoln, the movie, is but one of the many ways we as a nation will be reminded of the wrenching violence and bitterness of the Civil War as we remember it on this 150th anniversary.  Lincoln penned many documents which commend themselves to us in the 21st century if not for their content, then for the beauty of his writing.

The Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is a perfect example and will surface in this blog several more times I am sure for it has powerful lessons on both a national and a personal level.

Let's consider the national implications.  Lincoln was president when our nation was doing its very best to bring to an end itself by shedding unfathomable quantities of blood.  Far from a confident believer, Lincoln nonetheless considered himself a tool in the hands of God ['...the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy..."]  When power and might were the recommended response to a recalcitrant South, Lincoln reached out in compassion ("with malice toward none ...and charity towards all" from Lincoln's second inaugural address) to brothers who had become the enemy.

In the midst of this blood bath, Lincoln found important things for which to give thanks which he enurmerated in his Proclamation officially setting the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

He sought the nation's care for the '...widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers...' on both sides of the conflict.   Beyond this is the closing

                "I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him...[they]

                fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the

                nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes ...'

In these words Lincoln captures that place which people of faith are asked to inhabit: the place where we are acutely aware of our deep seated shortcomings, willing to look to the Divine Hand to work in its time, and to accept that ultimately God will work for the good of all.  That kind of faith simply takes my breath away.