The Diagnosis

"We are in this struggle together.  You have seen  my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it."  Philippians 1:30 

     As I contemplated 9-11 this morning and the war we find ourselves in, I'm almost overwhelmed with the perplexities of it.  It's a very complicated conflict!  This war is not against another nation, although there are nations involved, it's not for the acquisition of land or wealth, although land and wealth are involved and it's not even against an evil empire.  It is simply a war over philosophy, or religion.  It's as if we were all of a sudden fighting the Buddhist, or the Hindus, or the Ku Klux Klan!  It's crazy!
     Now I have to offer a disclaimer right away, so I don't offend anyone.  I know there are Muslims who are not terrorists, who are not out to kill us.  I listen to them on T.V. and have come to admire many of them.  Dr. Jasser is one of the most reasonable, patriots we have in this country today.   It would be like someone looking at the Christian world and equating it all with the KKK, just because they claim Christianity.  For this reason I sympathize with people like Dr. Jasser.  He doesn't want to be identified with the terrorists any more than I want to be lumped in with the KKK  I understand that.  But having offered my disclaimer, I must continue to oppose the thinking of people like the terrorists we are fighting, no matter with whom they align themselves.
     One of the great distractions of this war is that we are now fighting with each other over the semantics of what to call the enemy.  Even the President felt it necessary to offer his disclaimer in his speech last night when he said, "Let's be clear about one thing.  This is not Islam!"  Okay, we get it.  We all know that people can take a body of writing, no matter how "holy" it's believed to be and twist it or select parts of it, to fit their evil desires.  And there are those among us who simply hate Islam.  They, or someone they love, have been offended or hurt by it.  But to be honest there are those among us who hate Christianity for the same reasons.  Evil in the heart of mankind finds a way to hurt and kill no matter what that man calls himself.  But the war we are in is serious.  It is serious because in this case the evil has found a way to concentrate or pool in cells all over the world and it is seeking the destruction of everyone and everything that is not like it.  The word and concept of cancer is a very apt illustration of it.
     So how do we fight cancer in the body?  There are many ways, all which have been effective in different ways and in different bodies.  Some fight it with radiation.  Radiation targets the spot and seeks to kill it at the source.  Some fight it with drug therapy.  Drugs are effective when it has spread to different parts of the body because the drug that seeks to kill it, goes throughout the system.  Some fight it through diet and exercise or a change in their environment that may be causing the cancer.  Some fight it with prayer or the seeking of Divine intervention that will change the source of the evil and defeat it at the heart.  Like I said before, all of these methods have at different times and in different lives been effective.  I'm sure that everyone reading this can point to one of these methods and offer a testimony of how they worked on someone they know.  So knowing this, I don't discount any of them.
     Now, equating this with Islamic Terrorism, shouldn't we be employing the whole package in our fight against it?  I say, send in the Military, (Radiation and Chemotherapy), send in aide workers to parts of the world where the evil is growing, both in or out of our country, (diet and exercise) and send in the missionaries, (prayer and spiritual instruction).
     Because, God has given us the perfect example, cancer and the fight against it, we need to learn from that example, stop fighting with each other over the methods and get on with the war!
This is my, 2 cents!

     Oh and let us not forget the souls who have given their all for the fight.  Today we remember and honor those heroes who have sacrificed to bring this evil to an end.  And in honoring them and watching the ceremonies commemorating 9/11/2002, let's remember that this was the day we received the diagnoses... "You have cancer! You need to take up arms and fight or you're going to die!"   Find your place in the battle and don't walk away from it.

"...for you are fighting the Lord's battles!"  1Samuel 28b