Over the last week, since the United States took military action in Iran, I have seen many people disagreeing with it. People are afraid. They worry that the fighting will last a long time or that other countries will get involved. They fear that friends, family, or innocent people will be hurt or killed. Some also feel the money spent on war would be better used to buy food for the hungry or build homes for the homeless.

As a follower of Jesus, I truly believe we should try to find peaceful ways to solve our problems. This is especially on my mind right now. It is the season of Lent, and I am preaching a sermon series based on the book Love Your Enemies by Arthur C. Brooks.
I don’t just see those arguments for peace; I really feel them. I wrestle with them myself. I do not like violence or the suffering that comes with war. It makes me sad to think about the scars—both on the body and the mind—that men and women will carry for the rest of their lives.

However, there is another voice that stays with me. It is a voice I first heard 40 years ago when I was a young man. (I know that the number 40 is very important in the Bible, and that isn’t lost on me.)

A Story from the Grocery Store
That voice belongs to a man named Darius. He was from Iran but had moved to the United States to study at a university. We worked together at a local grocery store while his wife finished her degree. As we moved heavy pallets and put food on the shelves, we talked about our lives and our children.
He told me stories about life in Iran. He described how extremists would come into his village. They even taught children how to make homemade bombs out of glass bottles and gasoline. He told me how these men would bully the village and force young men to join them. Darius was so thankful he escaped to America, where he had freedom and opportunity.

Darius was always worried. Every few months, he felt he had to go back to Iran to check on his elderly parents. They needed the money he sent to survive and to pay off the “thugs” who bothered them. He was terrified that if he went back, the Iranian government wouldn’t let him leave again. He feared he would never see his wife or his life in America again. But if he didn’t go, he felt like he was abandoning his parents and siblings.
One day, he told me something I will never forget: “When the United States didn’t come to help after the hostages were taken in 1979, we as a people felt abandoned.”

The Reality of the Situation
Since that revolution in 1979, we have seen many terrible things. People have been killed for being Christians. Even though they are allowed to worship, “Sharia Law” makes it very dangerous for them. This danger isn’t just for Christians. People in the LGBTQIA+ community have been killed just for who they love. Women are often treated like they are less important; they are kept from going to school and don’t have a full voice in their communities.
The leaders of Iran have also called for the destruction of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. They are working to build powerful weapons to do exactly that. And recently, we have seen people killed in the streets just for demanding the basic human rights that God gives to everyone.

Seeking the Truth
I do not love war. I don’t think it should be our first choice, or even our fifth choice. But sometimes, it might be necessary. I think about what King Solomon wrote in the book of

Ecclesiastes:
“For everything there is a season… A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time for war and a time for peace.”

I still hear Darius’s voice saying, “We were abandoned.” When I see people suffering and being treated unfairly, I wonder if this is one of those times Solomon wrote about. One day, history will show us the truth about this season and whether our actions were right.

If we are a people who pray let us pray but if we are a people who do not, let us lift up our hopes and our for this time and those most affected.

I was doing my daily Bible reading recently, just like I do every morning. Right now, I am reading through the book of Numbers. To be honest, I usually struggle a bit when I get to this part of the Bible. There are a lot of rules and lists, and it can be hard to stay focused. But today, something happened that made me laugh and taught me a great lesson!
I have a habit of listening to the Bible on an app rather than just reading the words on a page. I like doing this because it’s how people in Jesus’ time would have learned about God—by hearing the stories out loud.

I was listening to Numbers 19:1. In that verse, the Lord tells Moses and Aaron to have the people of Israel bring them a “red heifer.” A heifer is just a young female cow. But as I was walking along, that is not what I heard.

My brain heard: “Bring Aaron a red pepper.”

I was so confused! The verses kept going, giving very specific instructions on what to do with this “pepper.” The Bible said the “pepper” should be taken outside the camp and slaughtered. It said the blood should be sprinkled and the whole thing—the skin and everything else—should be burned.

I stopped in my tracks. I thought to myself, “Wait a minute. I don’t remember ever hearing about a vegetable sacrifice in the Old Testament!” I started to argue with the app in my head. How do you slaughter a pepper? Why would you sprinkle pepper juice? I decided to hit the “back” button and listen again. I listened a second time, and I still heard “red pepper.” I was even more confused now. Finally, on the third try, I slowed down and really focused. That is when I realized the Lord was asking for a red heifer (a cow), not a snack from the garden!

It is pretty funny that this happened right after our sermon on Sunday. We have been talking about how we need to be “quick to listen.” In the book of James, it tells us that we should be fast to listen but slow to speak. King Solomon says the same thing in Proverbs: wise people are good listeners.

Even outside of the Bible, people like Stephen Covey have said we should “seek first to understand.” There is a big difference between just hearing a noise and actually listening to understand what is being said.

This mistake was a great reminder for me. In our world today, it is so easy to half-listen to people. We hear a few words, assume we know what they mean, and then we start planning what we want to say next. But if we don’t take the time to truly understand, we might miss the point entirely.

If we don’t learn to listen with our hearts, we might show up to our next “spiritual backyard BBQ” with a tiny red pepper when God was actually asking for something much bigger! This week, let’s all try to slow down. Let’s make sure we are really hearing the people around us—and the voice of God—so we don’t get our peppers and our heifers mixed up.