World Prayer, World Peace, World War

World Day of Prayer was 09-14-06

Last week "World Day of Prayer" was observed around the globe. Unity Village hosted distinguished guest speakers from an assortment of New Thought groups, to include Religious Science ministers and practitioners. One thing became apparent to me as the week's activities progressed: Although prayer functions individually and universally along the broad range of human growth amid life's circumstances, a lot of people these days are linking world prayer to world peace.

However, I am reasonably certain that if you were to visit many of our churches this week, world peace and the world situation will not be mentioned. Many of my brothers and sister in the clergy will not mention the growing catastrophe in the Persian Gulf—the swelling casualty lists from Iraqi sectarian strife among the people we have "liberated," the outcry around the world against American use of force before all other options were exhausted. Many of our churches will not raise the issue of dwindling American moral authority in the world, witnessed by our President's insistence on re-defining the Geneva Convention to allow legalized torture of POW's.

Some traditional churches are eager to save souls and care nothing about the world because their sights are fixed on heaven, so the preachers in the other-worldly churches will not comment on the ascent of nuclear Iran, carrying with it the looming danger of yet another front in what may be an endless war against Islamic extremism. In other churches, ministers rightly fear alienating members of their congregations by preaching a "political" sermon. Other pastors want to focus on the good, and give no power to the negatives.

I understand those sentiments entirely.

However appealing the reasons are for silence may be, I cannot send forth this weekly message from this Internet pulpit at this time in history without discussing the events in which we are all involved as citizens of the planet Earth. I'm also going to resist the temptation to provide a simplistic answer to the questions we face as a human race. Even though history has demonstrated that sometimes war may be the lesser of two evils—passive resistance against Hitler would not have worked—what I am nevertheless suggesting is that in all circumstances peace (the good) is superior to war (the "evil"), and that avenues of peace must be abandoned in favor of marching to war only at the extreme. And we are not at the extreme.
In some respects, the "War" on terrorism is a creature of our own creation. America was attacked by an organization of terrorists, and we don't have a word for fighting an organization on a global scale. So the concept of "War" was trotted out. It works for drugs, poverty, and disease--each of those worldly ills gets its own "war" declared by political leaders seeking to marshal support. So when we were attacked on 9-11, the question was how to characterize the action and our response. We have armies. We needed to strike at the enemy. Let's call it a war! Now, who do we fight?

Let's see...The Taliban harbored and financed them, they'll do. Saddam was a bad guy, and we whupped him once already. He'll do, too. North Korea? No, they have nukes, a trigger-happy nut for a leader, and a history of fighting like hell. Too costly, no oil. Maybe Syria or Iran...hmm. Hold that thought for now...

None of the above countries actually attacked us, a criminal gang staged 9-11, with the support and perhaps tacit approval of the Taliban, although the latter has not been proved to my knowledge. Even so, we turned what was essentially a police matter into a war of invasion and occupation, and a lot of the natives don't like it, and they're killing our troops and each other because of our military presence in their cities and countryside. We have taken the target--America, as represented by our young men and women in uniform--and moved it into the enemy's range. Of course we're fighting them over there now...but it's not because the Iraqi insurgents will attack New Jersey if we don't. We're fighting them over there because we ARE over there.

There was a time in my life when I thought I saw things so clearly, and I wanted to show the foolish people of the world how wrong they were. And, Lord knows, when it comes to identifying fools, the human race provides a target rich environment. In fact, I probably took an aggressive position as a matter of course. Maybe it was because I was young. Later, when I became a public school teacher of adolescents, I quickly learned that the default position of the young mind is set on rejecting whatever you say or suggest. It’s how they learn who they are…by saying, "Mom, Dad—I can figure this out by myself!" Perhaps some of that energy persists in the tone of my remarks, above. I am continually reminding myself that different people see the world differently, without any sinister motives attached to the differences.

I am, little-by-little, learning to be a little more reflective. I like the example set by H. L. Mencken, who was a newspaperman and magazine editor in the early Twentieth Century. His writing often drew letters expressing "outrage and indignation". Instead of telling the irate reader how wrong he was, Mencken simply wrote back, "You may be right…" and then considered both sides fairly. Is this not the basis on which civilization rests? Are not all peace negotiations predicated on an acknowledgment that the other party "may be right." Or at least might have a viewpoint worth listening to? [1 ]

I am not suggesting that Osama bin Laden and his crew are reasonable people with whom we can have tea and discuss our differences as if it were a petty squabble. There are people in the world who have, for whatever reason, taken the hard road to hatred and will not abandon their path no matter how much it hurts them or others. I am suggesting this characterization does not describe the majority of the human race, most of whom want to live and let live, cooperate and thrive. Ultimately, it isn't the bombs and the guns which can destroy human freedom; it is the rush to embrace the my-way-or-die philosophy which the terrorists represent. By setting ourselves up as bullies and brutalizers on a global scale, we make Al Qaeda our teachers. I can think of nothing which would bring a bigger smile to Osama in his cave.
What can individuals do? Well, regardless of whether we support or oppose the Administration’s policies, we can write letters and send e-mails. We can talk to friends about the power of peace. But most of all—and I mean this, MOST of all—we can pray for reconciliation, justice and peace and keep our consciousness high.

We can have peace in the midst of turmoil.

In 1969, the Apollo 11 Eagle landed on the moon and set up Tranquility Base. It was an ironic name for such a daring and dangerous mission. Neil Armstrong landed the spacecraft on the moon with just eleven seconds of fuel left, and he did it with less computer power than is contained in a new car today. NASA seemed to be communicating a metaphysical principle: You can have tranquility in the midst of turmoil.

Go Deep...

The same can be said on earth as well. Oceanographers say the sea remains tranquil below twenty-five feet. No matter how bad the storm rages on top of the ocean, the waters are peaceful down deep. We can find peace in the same place—down deep. Shallow faith leaves you anxious and fearful when the storms arise, deep and stable faith provides tranquility in the midst of storms. [2 ]

Go deep, and the storms break overhead without disturbing your inner peace.

The Apostle Paul said that when we have faith in Jesus the Christ, we realize God’s answer is "not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’ For in him every one of God's promises is a ‘Yes.’ " This means that negativity has no power over us, even in a world flooded with bad news. Prayer is even more important in those times when the bad news of life cannot be avoided.

Find the "Yes" in the "No" Situations

Life presents us with opportunities to choose between many alternatives. War or peace…haste or patience…decisiveness or hesitation…We might sometimes wonder why God has given us a world like this--why are there violent people like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Osama bin Laden? Why must we walk down the shadowy valley, instead of lingering on sunlit mountaintops?

I may not always agree with Dr. Billy Graham, but I like this comment: "Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys."

Peace through Reconciliation

In the long run, the answer must be reconciliation. Humanity must begin to accept that all of us are in this together. God wants us all to live in peace and happiness and prosperity, to find the "yes" in the "no" situations of life.

One final point on finding the "yes" in a "no" situation…God doesn't do for us what we could do for ourselves. God will be with us and the Laws of Prosperity will return a blessing many times over if we give lovingly and freely…but we have to do it. And that is especially true for the greatest product of Prosperity thinking, the blessings of Peace. You and I are the hands and hearts by which God’s work gets done. God’s peace is established in the world, regardless of appearances to the contrary. We are moving toward reconciliation of the family of humanity, and your prayers this week will speed us toward that goal of Oneness which must one day be realized.

NOTES:

1 Leadership, 01-19-03, p. 3.
2 "The Innovating Man," Tony Evans, Innovative Church Growth Conference, 1994.