Believing the War is a Game
The human has always been curious when it comes to war and all of its proceedings. We have long since studied wars and the effects that they have on the participants of those wars. We as humans also have loved to play armchair quarterback when it comes to analyzing these events and how the people who were involved were wrong or right in their decisions to fight. All of us have had our opinions concerning war and likewise most of us have put in our two cents when it comes to this topic. Humans love to fantasize about war and place it in a game situation trying to justify its outcome with our own interpretations. But while we perform this ritual we fail to see what really is occurring, we are ourselves being attacked and formed in a line to defend our beliefs, then we fail to notice that we are actually the targets of this war effort and are sucked into the deeper division that our enemy wishes us to be.
Weeks before the beginning of the Civil War great anticipation of the coming events were buzzing off the lips of everyone in the area that would become the lands of the first battles and skirmishes of the war. Of course many people were against the war, many supported the war, and almost every other viewpoint was represented in every community. There were included in this population people who were anxious to witness the events of the war and could not wait until the fighting began. Now, none of the people of this era could have imagined what was going to happen at that time since all they had to recollect was the American Revolution and the War of 1812 in which case the technology was less modernized and much simpler.
Within these communities of people who wanted to exorcise their blood-letting desires, some actually came up with the idea that they should be allowed to observe the battlefield events as they occurred. Many proposals were drafted and/or talked about during the weeks leading up to the said skirmishes and it was eventually agreed upon that if people really wanted to sit out in the open and watch the battles unfold that they may do that without any hesitation from the participants. However, there were many protests against this decision but as time grew closer the decision did not change and the ones who wished to watch the events transpire were allowed to do so.
Most of this may not be well known to the majority of the people who have not studied or are really familiar with the American Civil War, but it did happen even though the spectators of these events did not continue the practice very long due to the details that would be witnessed in short time. Most of these people were deemed war mongers and haters of the opposite side, whichever side that might have been. This type of ideology should not be shocking since after all they were humans and had the same capability of forming their opinions about the current state of affairs.
The people that were enthralled with the idea of watching a battle being waged had no reckoning of what actually was going on and how the political posturing had allowed this series of events come to a head in this manner. These people did not recognize the fact that up until the first shots of the war just how dangerous the situation had become and had ignored the signs due to the fact that they were consumed in themselves to take notes with their firsthand accounts. And with their picnic baskets in tow and their Sunday best clothes on, these people gathered into their places to watch the skirmishes play out and who could blame them for it would be their first opportunity to actually see some fighting like never before, the thrill of the fight if you wish to make it in that light.
At the end of the first volley of shots I can imagine that the tone of the spectators changed pretty quickly, especially when they realized that the people that were being hit with the opposing gunfire did not rise back up to fight again. I can imagine that as soon as the first volleys ceased the cries and screams of the wounded began to ring out and when curiosity reached the spectators they must have charged to the wounded only to notice that the blood was real and that things had changed for the worse. Of course many thoughts must have run through the minds of the spectators including that only a few of these battles would occur and that the ones fighting would realize the damage and end the talk and actions of war. Everyone soon found out that this was not going to be the case and after four long years of separation and fighting many families would be permanently devastated along with an entire country. The realization that the thrill of the fight was now a reality in which was not a pleasant feeling at all and the consequences were going to be great.
The American Civil War actually served as a unique fight since it actually was a war that pitted not only regions of the same country against each other but in many instances it divided families against each other. It is hard for us to imagine a mother losing one, two or more sons in fighting a war but to lose more than one son on opposite sides of the conflict is horrible to imagine, but in truth, this type of scene played out each day in this war. And when this type of loss happens, in this manner there can be no way to deny that some longer lasting bitterness is born within those who had to face this tragedy.
I myself have fallen into this category because I have always been enthusiastic about war and all of its concepts. I do not wish war upon anyone but I have to admit the action of war has kept my mind active ever since I was a kid. I remember one time when we were living in California I had a train board which served as a battleground along with scenery and other types of communal environments. Most of the boys in the neighborhood had these train boards and each of us had a different setting so that our battlefield scenes could present different challenges as the “battle” unfolded. We would be continually upgrading our boards by buying more soldiers, scenery, buildings, etc until the board became too small for all of our landscape scenarios and expansion ideas had to be forthwith.
During this period of time in my life I even had the concern that my ideas about war were wrong in which case I asked my father about them and the advice he gave me was priceless. Being a minister his answer came from the Bible and it was in a manner in which addressed both sides of the issue. In one instance he told me that King David loved the concepts of war and proved to be a great warrior on the battlefield. In another instance he told me that sometimes wars hit home to the families that are involved in the fighting and that all issues must be thought about before the actual fighting began. He then said that no matter what the final decision about a war is always place God first in the decisions concerning the war issue and no matter what the outcome would be, God would prevail as the victor for finding the ultimate solution.
I also remember that Fort Ord Army Base was just a few miles up the road from where we lived. At that time the public was allowed to drive through part of the base without having to go through any checkpoints or guard stations. Part of the drive to Monterey took us past the airfield where all of the helicopters were parked when they were not participating in exercises. I would always hope that some of them would be ready to take off as we were driving by or flying around in the immediate vicinity so I could gaze upon them. Most of the time I would be disappointed but every once-in-a-while I would get lucky and see some “activity”. This only fueled my desire to learn more about war and its concepts but even though my curiosity grew about the subject, I could not have imagined the consequences of war until I saw them first hand.
A popular science fiction movie came out in 1996 called Independence Day. In this movie there was a scene that portrayed the alien spacecrafts over some of the major cities of the world and they were obviously positioning themselves in a fashion that would prove to be focal points of their weapons. Their positions were strategically placed and when they arrived at their designated positions they stopped and began the final preparations for the usage of their weapons. This was a tense moment in the movie since mass panic was occurring on the streets of the metropolitan areas and people were jammed throughout the areas and were stuck in fixed positions with no escape.
As the scene continued certain people were thrilled that the aliens had arrived and were wanting to greet the aliens and welcome them to the planet, as a gesture of goodwill. These people went up to the tops of high rise buildings and began singing and dancing around waving signs of greetings to the aliens and “welcoming” their arrival to the planet. Of course as the aliens watched the people below they had no intentions of stopping their plans and so the invasion force began their destructive process. As the time arrived for the alien craft to fire upon the cities the bottom of the spacecrafts opened up and lit up the surrounding sky with a spectacular light. This event caused the people on the ground witnessing the event to stop and look towards the light all while the people “greeting” the aliens danced and cheered at the appearance of some significant gesture by the aliens. As the people sand and danced the aliens opened fire on the people and no matter what their opinion was about the aliens, everyone around the area were destroyed.
As in both scenes the reality of the situation, participants and observers did not matter, the process began and was completed without these people being asked to move or if they wanted to change their minds when the “shooting” started. The course had been set and the players had been chosen and the consequences and hurts set in stone. It does not matter if one of the scenes was fiction or not, the reality is that the concepts of the mindsets of the people were similar and we are seeing the same mindsets being played out in our society today and it is a very dangerous setting that we allowing to occur. Even though the second example has never taken place the first example is a reality that has once again fronted itself in our society.
What many people fail to see is that this type of scenario is playing out once again within our modern society. With each passing day we are exposed to more and more intimate details about people’s lives and how we try and convince people to choose to be on one side or the other. We lash out with ridiculous thoughts and ideas to make our believed points seem the truth all the while hiding the true agenda of division. We want so much to be right and to believe that we have helped our fellow man to “see” the light. We love to point out damaging aspects of our opponents while patting our stance on the back with cynical greed. Who cares what is really happening in the worlds of the people, it is all about being right and to intimidate others through words and phrases. In these types of settings our posturing to sit at the right hand of the popular people is costing us our integrity and our true interests in the name of correctness.
I find it amazing of how many of the young people of the modern world follow blindly to certain politicians, musicians, actors and actresses simply because all of these people portray lives of glamour and glory but what these kids fail to realize is that they will never have the life that these people live and nor will they be able to comprehend this concept if things do not change soon. It is this wedge of division that has now crept over into the family system and of course it has begun with the kids. Historians have stated that there is not a single family lineage with American roots that was not affected by the Civil War in some form. If this is true then it should be common knowledge that some type of division could take place within modern families.
We continually see this scene play out on our airwaves and until God is allowed back into our lives and we get our eyes off of ourselves this trend will continue and we will once again have severe fighting in the streets of our country. Not only will the fighting be of the physical nature but it will be of the mental, social and spiritual levels as well. No level of life that the human can imagine will be spared since humans always like to up-stage themselves down the road. The excitement that humans have to be right and to be popular far outweighs the consequences that these beliefs bring them in the long run. Popularity comes and goes and it will be gone from your world in what seems like a day but the truth may be compromised by your actions for an entire generation or even longer.
We see this legacy of division presenting itself every day across our world. It is just not in our country but in so many countries and in so many different tribes of people. Anger is driving our world to a death march and it has no signs of letting up, only increasing. We are on a path of civil destruction that only God can delay. We must stop and notice that what we are doing is actually hurting the world and not helping it. Our actions come truly from our spirits and this is the type of battle that is being waged on our lives and we are blind to its blooding. We must stop the blood lust of our spirits and contain ourselves within the confines of God’s laws or we will become once again as in the days of Noah. God is a patient God and a loving God and I know that there is a time frame that is completed before His judgment is poured out on His people and whether you know it or not or believe it or not, all of us are His people.
Time is running out on this course of action that we have chosen. God will allow certain things to come to pass on this country and other countries of the world which will serve as a warning to greater judgment. God does not wish this on His people but He must always do what is correct and just no matter what man thinks. Let us wake up and begin to see what is actually happening in our world. Let us drop the political posturing and trying to deem who is right. Let us forget about what we want for our lives and how we believe that we should live. Let us return back to God and to embrace His laws for our lives once again. Returning back to God is the ONLY way that our society will have any chance of survival. Returning back to God will fix all of the problems that the world is facing today, not some of them but ALL of them.
DLB
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