I haven't posted anything for awhile because for the last week I've felt like things in my life had gotten out of control---time, schedules, events, family, health, etc. Does anyone else ever go through times like that? You know that verse in Romans where Paul says, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."? (Romans 7:15, NIV)
That's how I've felt lately. So, I'm talking to the Lord and trying to regroup and figure out what my and His priorities are.
Anyway, one of the things that happened was when I was trying to put a Veterans Day page together. I was bouncing around the internet looking for things I wanted to include and was almost done, when BLAM! I lost the whole page. I was so frustrated and my eyes were blurry from staring at this screen and I just couldn't do it over again at the time.
But one of the things I found was a wonderful prayer written by a Methodist pastor who had been in the Navy. He wrote it in 1994 for Veteran's Day but it is still so relevant for this day and I wanted to share it with you.
Prayer for Veteran's Day, 1994
O God, help us to remember this day,
All those who have lost their lives in our nations wars.
Help us to keep the memory of these honored dead
Sacred in our minds and hearts that their lives
Might never be forgotten among those of us
Who have survived the dangers of war.
We wonder why it is that they have fallen and
We have survived to live another day.
We wonder how best to honor them
And the supreme sacrifice they made.
Make of our lives, O God,
A fitting tribute to our comrades
We remember this day and every day.
We remember their friendship--
Help us to be as loyal and dedicated
To others as they were to us.
We remember their courage--
Help us to have the courage to stand and even to
Fall for what is good and perfect in Your eyes.
We remember their pain and suffering--
Help us to live so that all warring between
Nations will come to an end in our time.
For if our fallen comrades died for anything,
Perhaps they, and the countless millions of
Children, mothers, and fathers who have been
Sacrificed in wars between nations died,
So that we who survive them might
Live for something higher,
Something far more noble than the chaos
And agony that is war.
We have been touched by war.
We who have served know the bitterness,
The pain, and the fear of war.
Veterans know, as perhaps only you can know,
O God, of the futility of war.
We gather today to celebrate not war,
Or the seeming inevitability of war in human affairs,
But to celebrate and remember the lives of our fallen
Comrades -- that they might not have died in vain.
We join their prayer that we may all live for that
Day when swords will be beaten into plowshares,
And all people will study war no more
Perhaps, if that day had come years ago, our friends
Could have been a gift of love to the world today,
Instead of a sacrifice to the world's hatred.
While we live, dedicate our lives to work
As hard for peace among nations,
As some people rush so quickly to war.
Help us to live, as our comrades died,
To bring an end to the warring of
Your children on this earth for ever.
By Bo Gordy-Stith
Bo Gordy-Stith Website
I also wanted to share this video clip with you. Many of you have probably already seen it, but it is worth watching again. The song is a Tribute to USA Soldiers and so says what I feel people need to understand about God and war and our soldiers!
If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV)
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