Remembrance Day & Love for Enemies

At 11 a.m., I said a prayer during the two minutes of silence for Remembrance Day. A prayer that God would forgive and heal our nation. That we would begin to see everyone - the soldiers who were lost, the people we killed, the victims of the Holocaust, the Nazis - everyone as children of God who were lost in a terrible war, not only of guns and bombs, but in the war of the mind.

Because before there was war, there were people who did not question the authorities. There were Christians who forgot what it meant when Jesus said "Take up your cross, and follow me." There was a church who forgot that Jesus, ruler of heaven and equal to God, gave up a kingdom to come to Earth, live among us, teach us, and then go to his very death - and called us to follow in His example. 

We lost focus. 

We forgot what it meant to love our neighbour. 

And so today, I remember. 

I remember the importance of keeping my focus on Jesus, not on what others tell me. 

I remember the importance of speaking up against hatred, against oppressors, against injustice.

I remember the importance of choosing to love, even when it means my own death.

I remember the devastation of war and the victims of the Holocaust, and vow to live a life that actively seeks out truth and love so that history does not repeat itself. 

I remember the "enemies" who died fighting for a country they also believed in, and how this very well could have been me if I had been born in a different time, in a different place, to a different family. And I remember the importance of questioning authorities and testing it against the life of Jesus. 

And finally, I choose to live my life in a way that shows it is always okay to die for a cause, but never okay to kill for one.