​Blog 611 – 04.23.2017

There Will Be Peace In The Valley

Yesterday I wrote about storms but today I would like to write a little bit about how to find peace even in the middle of the storm. As a young man of nineteen I found myself on a jet plane headed for South Vietnam. I had no idea what awaited me there but I had watched Walter Cronkite every weekday evening for years and saw pictures and heard graphic stories about our war in Vietnam and my imagination stirred quite a storm in my heart. But then a song I had sung in church many times came to me, “Whether I live or die, whether I wake or sleep, whether upon the land or on the stormy deep, when ’tis serene and calm, or when the wild winds blow, I shall not be afraid for I am the LORD’S I know.”

It is peace to know that you are guided, guarded and protected, to know that you belong to Someone Who loves you and always has your best in mind. The song that inspired the title of today’s blog is an old song that was once quite popular in certain circles but you don’t hear it much these days even in those same circles. One hears a great deal about war and that drum beat seems to always be in the background. My daughter Emily before her death turned me on to the Indigo Girls and one song that I really came to appreciate even more after her passing has a pretty harsh criticism of our national proclivity for war. The song says,

“One day those toughies will be withered up and bent,
The father, son, the holy warriors, and the President.
Glory days of ‘Put up dukes’ for all the world to see,
Beaten into submission in the name of the free.”

All the sweet sounding rhetoric of patriotism, justice, and freedom cannot justify going to war with our brothers. I am not the only veteran who has seen enough of war to know that seldom if ever does any real good come out of it. Oh, bigger and more effective ways to destroy lives and property for sure but not much else. I have always thought it ironic or perhaps moronic to name a gun or missile a “peace maker.” There was a young Jewish fellow once who came not packing an Uzzy or even a concealed carry but a heart full of love and a message from his Father and ours. Yes, in the story even the angels sang that message at his birth, “Peace on earth good will to mankind.” That peace in the valley song was written about him too. There is also written a promise about swords being beaten in to plows. And that happens every time even one soldier vows like Chief Joseph to never fight again. Peace always starts one heart at a time, yours and mine. “And there will be peace in the valley for me.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White