I think we've all gotten chain mail things in our e-mail boxes. Most of the time people send them to be annoying I think. "Send this to 20 people in the next 20 minutes and you'll meet your true love tomorrow." Or, "If you don't forward this on to 5 people you will have bad luck all of tomorrow, and an ax murderer will kill you too." Those irritate for sure... but then there's the other side. The one that transcends annoying by reaching a spot in your heart of compassion, and maybe even pride. I'll try to copy one such e-mail I got today verbatim.
I'm not breaking this one. If I get it a 1000 times, I'll forward it a 1000 times!
Let us pray...
Prayer chain for our Military....don't break it!
Please send this on after a short prayer for our soldiers. Don't break it!
Prayer:
'Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen.'
Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world. There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman and others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.
GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!
AMEN
How do you feel now? Patriotic? Angry at our enemies for the boy who no longer has a father? Do you feel inspired to fight? To be a good American? Do you wish to give your life for your country?
It is very important to honor everyone, including those in war. Whether you believe in war or not, that's a tough time right there, and they deserve good thoughts/words/prayers to get them through a hard time. In that same breath, can't we honor them by bringing them home, by stopping war?
Not once in that whole e-mail does it mention peace. Shouldn't peace be the real hope?
When I see an e-mail like this I see a representation of the American Way attempting to wash its hands of the travesty of war, by placing the outcome of its decisions on the shoulders of God. As if to say, whatever we do, we will pray for
blessing in it. In a round about way, it's allowing blame to fall on God if things don't turn out right. I know people who have turned away from God because their son died in war. "What kind of God would allow this to happen?" they might ask. "What kind of people would follow a way counter to God's way, which allows horrible things like this to happen?" I might ask. Both sides have devastating losses in war. Who is really winning? Would you kill a baby to save X number of people? If not, why would you support a war that does?
Maybe you think I'm cold-hearted and un-American. I don't want pursue being un-American, but I do want to pursue being pro-God. If there is conflict between the two, I will side with God. And as far as being cold-hearted... my heart breaks when I get e-mails like this. The truth is, I don't want this to happen anymore. I can no longer believe that war will end war, I can only believe that truth and love will end war. I'm certainly not so naive as to believe fighting war with truth and love won't have casualties, or even many or more casualties, but I do believe it is working in the right direction. There is no doubt in sacrifice for progress, but why should there be sacrifice to stay in the same old rut?
Let's move forward as a people. Let's give up some of our prayer time for some time in reading the Bible. Otherwise, how will we know what to pray for?
Forward this blog link on to 20 people in the next 5 minutes or I could care less.
