For What Shall We Pray?

What shall we pray for those who died, 

Those on whose death our lives relied?

Silenced by war but not denied, 

God give them peace.

Today is November 11th. It is the 90th anniversary of the day when the treaty stopped the guns of the Great War. This was the war that was supposed to end all wars. It didn't. There are still young men giving their lives in countries far away. There is still grief and pain in the lives of those who have lost the ones they love. We are still relying on those who choose to serve for the sake of our liberty and our freedom. 

What shall we pray for those who mourn

Friendships and love, their fruit unborn?

Though years have passed, hearts still are torn:

God give them peace. 

There is still pain in the hearts of those who have lost someone. There is pain in the lives of those who are waiting for someone to come home, to the place where they belong. There are many who have waited for someone who didn't come back and continue to wait, because they do not know what else to. 

What shall we pray for those who live

Tied to the past they can't forgive, 

Haunted by terrors they relive?

God give them peace. 

There are those who come home from war. They do not come the same as when they left. They carry with them a burden that those of us who did not go cannot understand. They have seen many things that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. They will always be tied to the past. We need to be there. We cannot understand, but we can still help. 

What shall we pray for those who know

Nothing of war, and cannot show

Grief or regret for friend or foe?

God give them peace. 

There is now a generation who has never known war. We have not seen the vets coming home from war, or the injuries that come from conflict. We do not understand what it is like for those who suffer in so many ways. We have not ever had to see the possibility of our liberty being taken away. We do not know how to face suffering because we have never seen it. We are beginning to know now. 

What shall we pray for those who fear

War, in some guise, may re-appear

looking attractive and sincere?

God give them peace. 

There is a saying that war is good for the economy. This may be true for some, but not all. There is intense human suffering and pain in all war. It may appear sincere for some cause, but it may not be. War will always reappear. Sometimes it will be attractive and other times it won't. When we no longer remember the suffering it causes, that is when we must fear. 

God give us peace and more than this, 

Show us the path where justice is;

And let us never be remiss

Working for peace that lasts. 

The path to justice is rarely clear. Sometimes we do not know where the justice lies until we have come to the end. The problem is that we have not come to the end yet. We do not know is what we do is right. The only thing we can know is that when we truly seek the way to peace, that is when we really seek the way to justice.