Today’s scripture: Psalm 76 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Melody Merida):
My Uncle Craig is a mystery to me. He retired from the US Navy a few years ago after a career of more than 20 years in the military. A part of the time that he served was during the Vietnam War. He was one of the “boots on the ground,” as it were, experiencing the war and all its horrors firsthand. But nobody in our family really knows exactly what those horrors were for him because Craig refuses to talk about them. Apparently, he wouldn’t talk about it from the moment he came home in the early 1970s; and he still won’t talk about it today. He keeps all his stories bottled up; and with them, a very important piece of his own identity.
But just because he won’t talk about it, doesn’t mean that we don’t know anything about what it might have been like. We see it all over Craig’s face, in his demeanor, in his multiple failed marriages, in the distance between him and his children. We read it on him, whether he knows he wrote the pages of his story or not. He is still, and most likely always will be, haunted by the horrific experiences that he must have endured.
And it isn’t just Vietnam that was so brutal; surely we could compare Craig’s experience to the multitude of other veteran’s experiences from Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and every other military action that our country has known. War is ugly and the scars it leaves on its victims go much deeper than any physical wound ever could.
So, as I think about my Uncle Craig, I wonder: What would it feel like for him to hear followers of Jesus speak about war as a tool of God? I can’t help but think that it might feel like a punch in the gut for him to think that maybe God was behind the damage done to him as a young man trying desperately just to stay alive.
As I read today’s scripture passage, I found myself wanting to reach out to my Uncle Craig, to share with him what was written thousands of years ago about God and war. The psalmist shares their understanding in 76:3, “[God] broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.” It turns out that God may not be such a big fan of war at all. The Message Bible tells us that God broke the arrows and used them for kindling; that’s how little God thought of them as weapons of war. God’s righteous anger is roused, it seems, by the very act of war itself, to the point that God would break weapons and use them to create something warming and helpful, like a fire. God’s anger makes a way for peace; it does not open the door for war.
And if we are to call ourselves children of God, then we, too, should be people who make way for peace. Our righteous anger should never be about creating war, or havoc, or harm to another; instead, we should use our anger to fire us up in ways that move the world toward positive change and peace. War is not of God; peace is the way of God. Are you using your anger (because we all get angry from time to time) to make weapons of war or to fuel our commitment to peace?
Thought for the day: If I were to talk with my Uncle Craig about his experiences at war, I might start by assuring him that God was present with him in Vietnam, but not as an agent of war. Rather, God is always working with us toward peace. As children of God, let’s be peacemakers, too.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.