I once again find myself writing a devotional addressing a conflict that is raging and costing many lives. When I wrote these passages, I learned of another U.S. service member killed in the operation against Iran. And while I had hoped that once I sat down to write this article, my words would come to life with great flourish and meaningful clarity, they are instead exhausted and weary. Many will look upon these events in the Middle East and be able to articulate the reasons and purposes behind them. There will be a political outcome that others will justify or vilify. But until that moment arrives, casualties will mount, people will die, and lives will be destroyed. It is the arithmetic of evil, the cost of man’s inability to live at peace with each other. The refusal to live under Christ’s ultimate commandment of “Love Thy Neighbor.”
To be sure, some will say that this conflict, like other conflicts, will result in a bright new future or a prospective peace with gleaming possibilities. And that may indeed be the result, of which I pray fervently for! But, there will be those who will remark with cavalier abandonment, “This is war, there will be losses…” And they will make these remarks in air-conditioned rooms, with pristine homes and lives, living without fear or any connection to the bomb cratered villages, flame engulfed buildings, scarred and torn military bases, and bloodstained hospital beds. They will never salute a flag-draped coffin, or comfort a grieving widow of a fallen servicemember, or fear their loved ones being deployed into harm’s way. That is for others’ sons and daughters to do, that they may have the freedom to tout their armchair wisdom on the outcomes of war casually. People may indeed hope and pray for these current operations to cease with positive results, but may we as a people not grow callous to the violence and bloodshed that war can bring?
Perhaps that is what I fear the most as a pastor. That we as a people will become accustomed to the death and degradation of other people, or even our own. I have sat, many a time, before a service member who suffers from the results of war or the cost of their service. People will say, “thank you,” or clap for them in the airport, but close their ears to the statistic that 17 to 18 U.S. veterans die by suicide every day. There is a cost to our conflict, and it is not usually borne by the average citizen like you or me.
