An Alternative to War

An Alternative to War!
By Jerry L. Barnes, Pastor/Professor (ret) Grove OK.

How can we know peace in a world
so saturated
with death and dying?

Every new century is stained
by the blood
of thousands of innocent victims
by lust-for-power leaders
who engage in deceit and lying!
As long as it is not their sons and
daughters who do the dying!

My heart grows heavy when I recall
the vacuous meaning of it all…
of death and dying,
suffering and tears,
of shattered dreams
and wasted years.

Indeed! My mind is deadened by
fatigue  when I try to recall. . .
the twisted, tortured reasons
for it all!
Was it WMD or Nine/Eleven?
Or, was it oil?
Was is the “Religious Right?”
Islam?
Or, was it oil?
Or,
Haliburton?
Or,
Were national leaders trying
to cover cowardice in
another war in another time?
The One,
with an extended
AWOL!
The Other,
FIVE DEFERMENTS
Well?

Wearily, I journey onward in my quest
for the
Peace-Maker
Who
greets us all with
 His soft-spoken,
Shalom!

Against this backdrop of suffering and death,
let me suggest an alternative to war!
Over a half century ago,
I encountered the Maker of Peace at
Sniper Ridge and Triangle Hill
in still another war!
In His inimitable way,
He greeted me with His
soft-spoken, Shalom!
I knew, then, I would never forget
the haunting challenge of His
winsome words:
“Blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the sons and daughters
of God.”
When the Peace Maker continues His journey
along the WAY,
And, we continue our journeys
along the WAY,

I pray—
He will leave His
SHALOM!
as a lynch pen
in our relationship.

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