My Dear, Dear Armenian,
Instead of mania after 100 long years since injustice meted out your bitter dispersal, instead of remaining a bitter, abused people, instead of outcry and just demands,
imagine with me, a different scenario:
Imagine that, after enduring horrific atrocities mercilessly inflicted and then ignored by all the world, teams of God invested and God fearing Armenian survivors determined to lock arms with the entire world in an unusual display of concerted obedience, setting up prayer pods aimed to intercede for the nation of Turkey; purposing to heal by means of something hitherto unheard of (unless you sit alert and attentive in a Christian church every Sabbath Day); a long term method of praying for those who persecute you which finds comfort in actually blessing those who despitefully use you.
Imagine, without so much as an uttered word about harm done and trauma suffered (and nothing about genocide, because that iron word hadn't yet been invented), a new idea sprang up from the dirt and dust of heartbreak and despair in 1915.
Imagine some unprecedented pursuit bent on a 100 year long strategy to counter hate and bile and anger. Imagine ignoring the passionate need for retribution that
we all suffer from when we can taste nothing but the hoped for flavor of justice exacted right before our eyes, and instead, dying to all that out of obedience to scripture?
Let's say this drive to dismantle these demons of fallen men and angels became an orchestrated response through the setting up of merely ONE prayer pod in every nation of the world, wherever Armenians find themselves, organized to meet weekly, albeit weakly, and to replenish its members every few months so that it would spread; and before long, every city in every nation had one. Prayers for the government of Turkey would be multiplied.
Let's say this effort went off silently, pacing itself week by week, month by month, until years passed, and then slowly, imperceptibly, the Church, The Body of Christ, began to take note ... and
BAM. Organic change: a generosity of spirit manifested by these holy saints leaks out onto the heart of Christianity across all cultures, nations, and denominations. Then,
suddenly, after 100 dutiful years had elapsed, all the world has unknowingly been
schooled by the power of the long since animated Holy Spirit who is quickened by such an inordinate, uncommon and truly unheard-of determination to remain
obedient to the Word of God
.
History would be changed. Turkey would have been changed. This world we now face would not be as it is and Western Christianity would not, I daresay, be a hedonistic exercise in entitlement and material acquisition.
Rather,
all the world would clearly see The Way to Christ through a humble preference to love one's enemy. The example set by the persecuted among us would have given all of us new eyes for what genuine forgiveness looks like. And genuine repentance. And genuine everything.
And I would be changed. Instead of licking my wounds and clinging so much to my victim status, I would realize a larger purpose for my pain.
AmZyg might be a cheery puddle of sunshine, not the Eeyore cave she so delights in. Her DnA would refract different hues altogether.
And therein lies my dream. To at last see offenses as if they were committed against God himself, instead of against me. For He is where my final justice comes from. I can be certain that, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, a just God will have his day.
I, and you, too, little AmZyg, must stop forever taking offenses personally. Sin, ALL sin, is an offense against the Almighty. Not you.
So get over yourself?
Thus is the essence of our PRO-Life ideal.
To WAIT for the justice we know is coming, even if it takes 100 years. or 1,000.
Times ten.
And to hope, meanwhile, for our enemies to see The Living Christ through our longsuffering, and embrace Him.
"With God, there is no injustice..."
~ Jehoshaphat in II Chronicles 19:7
(i.e., He will see to the job of avenging the weak. In due time, He will do it.
It is not our job to exact it ourselves.)
*** SUPPORT this group:
Women for Middle East Hope
Box 2770 Easton MD, 21601 • (866) 744-7287
