Here's the Thing

We are at war, the battlefield is literally covered in bodies, some are dead, some are dying, some are in the fetal position wrought with fear. We who have the message of the commander’s intent, we must not leave our fellow warriors behind. Some in our ranks are more concerned with regulations than commander’s intent. Others are cowardly finding excuses as to why they do not engage the enemy, or even worse, why they will not put themselves in harms way to go out and get the wounded and dying left out on the battlefield.

We are at war, the enemy isn’t at the gates, the enemy is within our walls, as we are being overrun by their blitz tactics at every corner, we are surrounded and our troops no longer possess the training to cover and move, or hold fast to the honor code of leaving no one behind, no, we are no longer training them, we are entertaining them, teaching them instead to no longer call the enemy evil, we just dispute which of us has the better tactics yet never leave the swivel chair.

We are at war, the graves of the fallen are spread throughout the ages covering the globe, in our country, our communities and even our own backyards. The spiritually wounded among us have no advocate, no one filling the gap between the enemy and their souls, no one to tend their wounds, no one to render aid and call for support.

We are at war, the enemy has infiltrated our communications, spread misinformation, demoralized our troops, cut off support and is taking no prisoners. The enemy has the high ground, we gave it to them.

We are at war, our children are abandoning our ranks to join the other side, cowardly, we dismiss their defection as just a phase taking no ownership of the procuring cause of their defection; our own hypocrisy  We did not train them, we entertained them, our idle laziness is evident in the emptiness of our places of training. We lost an entire generation to the enemy by training them to be idolaters, by teaching them to value what enemy values, now in our empty halls we blame the enemy for our failed tactics and for those of us who are trained in the tactics, we blame the enemy for us not executing them.  

We are at war, the battle will soon be over, the bodies will be counted, the only question is how much blood is on our hands? Here’s the thing, all of it.

Joshua 5:13-15