Why Do We Still Have Wars?

by Ian Doescher

Little things are almost driving me to tears lately. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the change in seasons, maybe life is more serious somehow, maybe the heat, or maybe I’m just getting more sensitive as I get older. But I find myself getting just a little choked up fairly frequently these days. One thing that did it recently is a song by folk singer Tom Chapin. Tom writes songs for both children and adults, and his children’s albums have, of late, become favorites with my two sons. On his most recent album, “Some Assembly Required,” Tom has a song called “Questions” which imagines all sorts of questions that kids might ask. “Questions” includes the following lyrics:

How does an iPod play?

Who puts the stuff in stores?

When did your hair turn grey?

Why do we still have wars?

That last one just gets me, imagining a child -- my own child, perhaps -- wondering why wars still exist. If everyone knows that war is a bad idea, if nobody likes war, why do we still have it? I guess it’s particularly poignant because I just don’t have a good answer for it myself: I wish I knew the answer, too.

War is a big part of our biblical heritage -- read the book of Joshua, or 1 and 2 Kings, or Revelation, for instance, and you’ll know what I mean. War is all over the place, and we can’t say that God is consistently against it (or for it). In fact, God sometimes instigates it or commands it.

Why do we still have wars? I don’t know, but my near-tears end up turning to prayer as the only answer, as the only choice, as the only hope:

God of the sparrow, God of the lily, God of the cross, forgive our foolish ways.

We have not learned to be your people

We have not learned to love each other

We have not learned what shalom is

Instead...

We hate

We kill

We make war

Rock us gently with your shattering, merciful hand

Shock us with awful grace until we come to our senses

Knock us flat with the perfect hope we find in you

Until...

We learn

We live

We even,

someday,

even love