A Brief Intro

We at war with terrorism, racism.

But most of all, we at war with ourselves

(Jesus Walks)

God show me the way, because the devil's tryna break me down.

                                                  

-Kanye West."Jesus Walks." The College Dropout. Rock-A-Fella Records, 2004

I've never served in the Armed Forces.  I've never learned how to shoot a gun, crawl on my belly through the mud, or tie a proper tourniquet.  I don't know how many troops are in a battalion or what it's like to tuck a photo of a loved one into my front pocket - just for those times when I can't remember. 

Most of what I know about war comes secondhand.  My cousin, Sarah, served in the War in Afghanistan, some 6,800 miles away.  She came back, and was never the same.  My uncle, Ron, fought in the Vietnam War (which is even further away than Afghanistan).  He died early due to substance abuse.  Marvin Gaye once cooed during Vietnam, "War is hell/When will it end?"  In seminary, I had a professor who echoed this sentiment every morning as we prayed before Hebrew class.  "War is hell," he said, before proceeding to pray for peace.     

Interestingly, it was war that led my Grandpa Sam, an artilleryman in the Air Force during WWII, to go to seminary himself.  "God, if you allow me to survive," he prayed during one of his missions over Germany, "I'll go to seminary and become a preacher."  He made good on his promise, and took no small delight in the fact that I ended up at the same seminary, some 50 years later.  But without needing to go through a war to get there.  

And yet, I do know something of the spiritual war, the internal struggle we're born into.  The song lyric I started this post with turned out to be unwittingly ironic: today, Kan(Ye) was dropped by his shoe sponsor for violent, anti-semitic remarks.  We're at war with ourselves.    

This blog is a space for me to explore things related to God, music, church, war, and, most importantly, peace.  

Thanks for stopping by.  God's peace to you and yours.