The story goes that a venerable old general who was serving in the Union forces during the Civil War had worked hard to prepare his troops for combat. But, aware that they were hopelessly outnumbered in a coming battle, he lined his soldiers up and said this: “Gentlemen, I want you to fight vigorously for a bit and then run and save yourselves. As for me, because I am a bit lame, I am going to begin running now.”
All right, running from a challenging conflict isn’t noble, but isn’t it understandable? Can’t we all appreciate the sentiment behind the general’s words to the troops? Frankly, as violent incidents occur with ever greater frequency and severity in our country and around the world, it almost seems that there is a war raging near us now. The battle is getting closer, and like the old general, many of us are feeling a little lame.
In the decades in which we have been in ministry, since the mass shooting at Columbine High School, there have been so many more: Virginia Tech; a Sikh temple in Wisconsin; a theatre in Aurora, Colo.; Sandy Hook Elementary; San Bernardino, Charleston, Orlando, Dallas, just to name a few. And this is not to mention 9/11, or the bombings in Madrid, London, Paris and Brussels, or the rampaging truck in Nice.
So maybe no one could really blame us for saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, run and save yourselves.” After all, who doesn’t feel a little lame, a little unprepared for the battles and skirmishes that surround us on every side? We could choose to turn away, distancing ourselves as best we can from the escalating violence. Or we could instead make the difficult choice to face it, move together toward it, and act to help somehow in overcoming it.
Intriguingly, the American lawyer and Civil War veteran Robert Green Ingersoll once claimed that each of us must walk steadfastly through life’s difficulties, whatever they may be, with determination and courage, trusting that, as he phrased it, “the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.” In other words, Ingersoll seems to say, a faithful stance is not a disengaged one. If we are seekers of the sacred, involvement and commitment may be required of us even in tough times – perhaps especially in tough times.
So what can faithful people do to stem the violent tide? We won’t easily come to a universally accepted solution. But if we take our stand together, we will certainly be well-positioned to discover God-given possibilities in our midst for acting courageously to change our world and bring to it more compassion, more understanding, more harmony and holiness.
Let’s not pull up lame now.
