This week's issue is about Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, Indigenous Veterans Day, and all the other sacrifices we are indebted to which were made so our society may thrive and grow; this from the soil of beliefs our War Veterans were defending, when they went to war.
What remains is, have we honoured these sacrifices?
If we have continued to live and even grow deeper in the values their actions were predicated on, then we have and are living in honour. If we, as a society, have departed from these values worth dying to protect, then where is the honour?
I'd like to examine the idea of scars. What is a scar? Isn't it a remembrance, a witness, the substance of a truth? Scars reveal a reality not experienced by others, especially not on an intimate, internal level. If I may, I believe I can safely say, no Veteran would want us to carry, in our inner selves, the scars they carry. Yet, despite the unthinkable circumstances in war, I believe they would each insist, all life should be treated with value and protected.
How many times have we felt secret shame when we looked at someone, seen their scars and then turned away, or wanted to?
In the past, whenever I was confronted with the scars of others, I had an aversion to the people who carried them. If they were war wounds, this confronted the inner sense of never doing my part, and whether I could, or couldn't relate, making it seem I was not enough. I simply didn't know how to interact with these individuals. What if I asked a question which sent them into a recurring cycle of traumatic memories or set them off? Frankly, I was intimidated and afraid. That was about me not them, really.
Then, one day, I had a realization, "When they went to war to protect us and the values which protect life, how did they feel? Yet they still went." Who was I to allow this little insecurity to override the appreciative response, for the depth of reality these brave people have lived: openly lived, to defend our lives? These heroes deserve time with us, but time which illustrates their sacrifices were not for nothing. Time which imparts back to them, gratefulness, purpose, and security for the kind of future they gave themselves to defend.
Part of the disconnect, is because we have never really experienced this kind of raw reality or confronted the worst in the potential of mankind, certainly not on a mass scale. Except for some in our police force and medical system none have experienced this kind of deprivation. Select individuals in these fields have contended with the results of this kind of assault on the human senses, as they work tirelessly, confronting it in our hospital emergency wings and on some of our streets. This level clearly reveals it is not just an individual thing but rather a pervading and presenting influence, harassing the hearts and minds of humanity. It's really a spiritual thing, at it's core.
We all fight against it in our personal lives, yet it comes out in drips and drabs of impatience or anger, feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, and in times of resentment or even prejudice.
These inner wounds are scars as well, but they are ones which are not initially evident physically. They are the wounds of the soul. Our Veterans carry these inner scars exponentially, on top of, or should I say, underneath these physical witnesses of bodily scars.
Yet, many Veterans have this solace, as that is not all they have been immersed in. They have also experienced the noble potential of humankind. They may have surprised themselves, even directly saving lives or have fought beside those who gave their lives to save others. So many: fighting to stop war by stopping the physical aggressor, have come home with physical and inner scars, wounds incurred while valuing the lives of others. Scars are a witness something harmful was confronted, something good was won, and the one carrying the scars has lived, a testimonial of that victory of the good.
The Holy Bible says, that is the highest thing another person can do. In John 15:13, the LITV version shares it this way. "Greater love than this has no one, that anyone should lay down his soul for his friends." This 'Love' is a disposition carried in the heart with a preconception of good. You might even call it a positive prejudice. Friends: these in our community or our country, whether we've met them or not, are these sol-diers. It's an interesting word when you look at it that way, huh. We all like to imagine ourselves aspiring to this, simultaneously believing we have little opportunity to reach it in apparent peacetime. However, to hide sense of inadequacy most of us inwardly turn away. It's understandable because we don't even know where the war is being waged. Yet, we are still in a war, one which attempts to corrupt the spirit of humankind, crippled by the fall of man.
The answer, is not a blaze of glory, however, it's a lifelong disposition, a spiritual one. The war for our hearts goes on more subtly, in the absence of direct physical war. It's the daily war of trying to rise up and live protecting the lives and dignity of others close by, and consequently, at a larger level, our society.
The victory starts by admitting we need the help of Christ, who has already fought that spiritual war and will share his scars with us if we ask him. In this sharing, He also shares the victory won, the victory over that inner harassment. No amount of cheerleading, reflective abandonment, or incessant distractions through multimedia can evade the needful acknowledgement of life's calling us to yield to the witness of scars.
Christ's sacrifice, to defend us, provided us with an opportunity to live forward with that same seed of integrity. Consequently, we must look at it honestly and directly, remembering from the fall in the garden, the corrupted heart of mankind. This, and the enemy which attacked in the garden, provokes the wars in the world today, right now, in the Ukraine and the Middle East.
In the Bible, it says, "Yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands," in Isaiah 49:15b-16a ESV.
God has scars: think of it, we are His scars, reminding us of His Love for us. This seed of laying one's life down for others, is offered to us today. Remember, we must acknowledge the gift, its purpose and security, with gratefulness, and live it forward in everyday moments. Christians hold this mission in heart; we treasure it because of the unending witness of Christ's scars.
Scars serve as a witness of reality, evidence of truth fought for, and a danger fought and defended against. In the Judicial Court system, throughout history, this is called evidence, but more than circumstantial or hearsay, it is the kind of evidence which is undisputed, an actual part of what existed in the fray.
Christ's scars serve as a witness of reality, of the corrupting of mankind. Yet more, they also serve as a testimony of a moment in time, God's victory over this corruption took place and how these scars offer direction for new life, if we will take them to our hearts. Similarly, our veterans' scars direct us to look to them and learn of the value of life. Remembrance Day commemorates a need-fullness to acknowledge the truth these heroes fought for, serves as a reminder to the spiritual war we live in today, and the good fight we can embrace, to live as seeds of life.
Happy Seasoning.
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