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.