As I sit here tonight, there are a host of stressors giving my gut something to complain about. Heck, I just ended a sentence with a preposition! It’s getting bad.
Things as petty as my dog whining because I’m not playing with him (petty, that’s funny), all the way to thoughts of nuclear war (that’s NOT funny), are making me feel like huddling in a dark closet until the monster gets through trashing my house looking for me.
Then again, how do my stressors compare to those trying to stand their ground in Ukraine? Do my problems involve trying to find more ammo for my AK47? Hardly. The most I’ve got to be concerned about is not screwing up tomorrow’s sermon or missing Monday’s flight out of Atlanta.
But there’s one stressor that should be challenging the most iron-like intestines – the genuine threat of World War. . . even nuclear.
“Oh, come on!” you say. “There you go with all that fearmongering that’s so typical at times like this.”
Times like this? What kind of time is this, exactly? It’s crazy, if nothing else.
Think about it. Nobody thought Hitler would keep marching through Europe after Germany annexed the Sudetenland, the ethnic German territory lining the periphery of western Czechoslovakia in September of 1938. Yet, in September of 1939, World War II began when German tanks rolled into Poland.
Ironically, what Hitler claimed as the reason for annexing Sudetenland sounds extremely similar to the accusations Putin has made about Ukraine.
Denigrating the ethnic German population to “immigrant” status, the Czech government instituted a policy of “rapid de-Germanizing” in Bohemia and in the Sudetenland.
Richard Tedor, “Hitler’s Revolution”
Hitler wanted to annex the territory around him because, as Putin claimed about those of Russian heritage in Crimea, the ethnic Germans were being disenfranchised and abused. Now Putin is saying the same about Ukraine and expecting the West to stand down.
However, looking at today’s news, it seems the western nations are not sitting idly by; it seems like we are ramping up sanctions (which hurst all of us, eventually) and upping troop numbers in nearby countries.
Does this mean that there is light at the end of this tunnel? Maybe. But the weapons in the hands of THIS madman are potentially catastrophic. Therefore, what may have been unthinkable at one point, much like what Europe believed in 1938, could be just around the corner, that is, if Putin’s pride is more valuable than human life.
Are we on the brink of the unthinkable?
Something to think about. But God is still God.
Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matt. 6:34 CSB
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. – Psa. 55:22
The Recovering Legalist 