I just returned from a National Day of Prayer Rally sponsored by a really cool church downtown in my city. I volunteered to lead the section of prayer for our military personnel all over the world. This is really close to my heart now because I just “gave” my eldest son to the US Air Force. Funny how you pray for stuff more when you or one of your family members is at risk…

  

I’m not a pacifist, but I hate war! It sucks! War takes the lives of soldiers and of civilians. I’m glad I don’t have to believe in a doctrine of war to be a Christ-follower. Most of the time war seems to have a motive behind it that comes from someone’s pride or political agenda. On the other hand, I’m eternally thankful for the outcome of the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War. Those wars were very costly in lives lost, but unlike some other wars they won real freedom for people who were in bondage and under strange beliefs that abused other people and made them slaves. Slavery sucks too! 

 

I think it’s admirable when America attempts to deliver another nation from the tyrannical, despotic leadership of some arrogant jerk who uses people for his own means of wealth and as fodder for his own sick pleasures. Then somebody has to have the courage to go and beat those guys up! There’s probably a hotter place in hell for some of them.

 

War sucks, but I am so proud of my son and others like him who have the courage to serve their country. I know what other parents feel like when they “give” their sons and daughters to a branch of the military. We all learn to pray hard. I pray several times a day for him. My son wants to learn how to disarm bombs and then go disarm them before they kill other people. He has huge courage. He’s one of my heroes.  

 

I’m proud of people who enter the military because they want to help somebody, to disarm bombs, or take in medical supplies, purify water, build dams for irrigation systems, build schools and stuff like that. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to engage in war before all those cool things can happen. They need our prayer and deserve our respect. They need our love and our care. They need our gracious reception when they return. They need to know they are our true heros -- not some sports guy who gets paid a lot of money to play a game. Our values are so upside down, but that’s another subject …