I got up real early this morning. I had to fly to Seattle for the day. I flipped my ipod to Billy Joel’s Shea stadium concert on my ipod. The first song that popped on was Saigon. It is a song about the terrors of Vietnam.
It particularly hit me. I still get angry when I think of a war being fought not to win at the expense of young men in their prime.
I have had two friends who served in Vietnam reach me the last couple months. Both saw intense combat in Vietnam. And both suffer from delayed stress syndrome. And both are in serious trouble so many years later. Another friend was shot down three times over Vietnam in a helicopter. He was a gunner on all three ships. His body is full of shrapnel. He had to be institutionalized for depression.
So much lost for so little gained. It is amazing to me how long terror can linger in a soul.
All this got me thinking about the violence of the kingdom. The cross is a clear picture of the violence in the spiritual realm that precedes the advancement of the kingdom. Prayer and intercession are the primary tools of our warfare. And the proclamation of the Word demolishes strongholds. I wonder if the church truly grasped the power of her weapons of warfare if there would be wars as we know it.
