War What is it Good For?

So yesterday I got the opportunity to see Pearl Harbor for the first time. While watching the video before they boat you out to the Arizona memorial I found myself questioning what the point of this whole thing is.

If you know me you know that I am not shy about telling you I am against war. I tell people as Christians I think it is wrong to participate in a war that our nation encourages based on the nation's sovereignty. I don't believe any nation has real sovereignty yet every nation would disagree with me, not just the nation but all the citizens. That gets me thinking about what a nation actually is it is people, just as the church is the people. It is not some chunk of land it is those that live on the chunk of land. So on this chunk of land we find the people just as we find a building called a church. In the church are the people and that is the heart, not the pews or chairs, the alters, or podiums, or screens, and crosses. The people are the heart. And these people have failed the nation.

We as the church are a broken people. We fight bitterly about our rights to have the perfectly spiritual service in our eyes. Well all of our eyes are different and that will never change. The problem is that we can't see past our petty differences and embrace our brothers and sisters with love. We are too afraid to admit our wrongs and our imperfections that we continue to push people out of the building and eventually out of the church.

I see that as sin, plain and simple.

Back to Pearl Harbor.
So at the time Europe was in ruins and Japan was trying to be respected in the world as a power. This is all motivated by hate and fear. We tell ourselves that everyone is looking to hurt us so we go out and take what we want. This leads to a world war that takes millions of lives civilian and militant. Yet we say that this war is just and that God called us to fight.

I see that as sin, plain and simple.

Men join the navy to serve their country in a time of certain war. They move the fleet to Pearl Harbor to deter the Japanese from continuing their relentless campaign for more land and resources. This failed instead all it brought was pain and death. Almost a thousand men are still trapped inside the USS Arizona. I waked above their grave yesterday. This is a memorial to them and their service yet it seems to me that they did nothing but die, and die for nothing. They were blindsided with an armor piercing bomb that ripped through the ship and blew up the ships munitions stores. So we prepare for war and one bomb blows up our weapons and a thousand men die in a second. That is just? That is what God called these men too? Our own weapons took their lives our war machine combined with another nation's war machine for a second ends in the deaths of thousands of men.

I am not trying to disgrace their grave. These were men that God had created and loves so I should show them the respect that that deserves and that is much more respect than I will ever show a war hero who spent his life taking the lives of God's creation.

The war that hate brought did nothing but take lives and create chaos, that which God had under control before the fall of man.

These war machines that brought pain and death to humans also still brings pain to creation. The Arizona is still leaking oil sixty seven years later. The war has been over for a long time and yet the old war machine is still hurting the environment. That doesn't even take into consideration our current war machines and others since then.

We are a broken people who hate and are not perfect and feel pain. There is one answer to sin and that is Christ! Christ showed those around him love and we are called to do the same. We will never heal the ills of this world unless we seek the Lord and Savior of this world. Love cancels out hate.

I pray that everyday the church goes out and helps the healing process. Love those around you and let them know that they are created by the only perfect being to ever exist.

I pray that one day we can see each other as the beautiful beings that God has created not just enemies and someone who has come to take and to create chaos.

Give freely what you have been given freely.

Faith the Size of a Mango Seed

Last summer I spent three amazing weeks on the beautiful island of Dominica. Those three weeks changed the way I thought about a lot of things particularly what I viewed ministry as. That isn't what is important right now though. The other thing that I discovered in that amazing place is that mangoes are freakin good!

In my backyard is a peach tree. Peaches have for many years been my favorite food. Then I had fresh mangoes for the first time. Get off your pedestal peaches here comes the best fruit ever grown, mangoes! The king of the world, well at least in my heart. This will all be important later on.

To the present...

God has brought me again to an island, this time it is Hawaii. Oahu to be exact. I am living my summer out in the amazing town of Kaneohe. I absolutely love it here. My summer was going swimmingly until this morning. I received some news that my financial future is not as secure as I was hoping it would be. I got denied for a scholarship that I desperately need. This filled my mind with sorrow. What the deuce was I going to do? I am completely screwed. I sat at work after a long conversation with my parents trying to get started on my sermon for tomorrow night. Nothing doing. I couldn’t focus at all. I decided a change of scenery would do me some good. I packed up and began to leave. Before I took off I thought it necessary to say goodbye to my friends Will Campbell and the one and only Andrew Gumm. I shared my woes with them and was prepared to leave when a little girl that I had never seen before gave to me the most amazing smelling/looking mango I had ever beheld. I came back home and immediately cut that baby up so I could have a taste.

My first bite made all the stress inside of me melt away. I was calm. One bight changed my entire mood! I do not know this girl but my thanks to her.

As weird as this might sound God used a simple fruit that I love very much, to remind me that He is in control. A simple thing of eating something that the Good Lord has provided made me see that life isn't so bad. God is in control and no matter how bad my situation might seem God has my back. All I need to do is have faith that it will be handled.

The Lord works in mysterious ways!
Be encouraged brothers and sisters that God still brings mangoes into our lives. How amazing it is when God can once again remind us of how small we are, and that He is the big man in control.

So go and have faith the size of a mango seed!