The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?”
The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king,
and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.”
—2 Samuel 18.32
David fought a war against his own son,
but asked that Absalom be spared.
It did not go that way.
When we take up arms, even in the cause of justice,
we unleash violence that we can’t prevent
from returning to us.
Today is the anniversary of America’s bombing of Hiroshima.
The horrors we’ve been willing to inflict
do not promise to keep their distance from us.
Behind appeals to a “necessary evil” is the reality
that violence is never inevitable,
but the result of our failure to find a better way.
Pray for the humility to admit our faults,
the wisdom to imagine what we nave not seen,
and the courage to keep seeking new ways.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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