As I reflect on the incredible sacrifice that thousands made for the freedom of others on this ANZAC Day 2021, and I look back at the madness of the year that has gone by since the beginning of the current pandemic, the realisation is always the same – the battle is always for and within humanity.

It is not the colour of one’s skin that matters but only one colour – the red that flows in all of us and has been shed so much in battlefields and hospitals.  What is essential is the soul – it is the essence of every person; the human spirit that perseveres through the most hideous of times.

ANZAC Day – and every other day in the life of a person – is not only about standing and gazing at flames and candles. 

It is not only about counting how many men are left from wars gone by.

It is not only about listening to stirring music and laying wreaths.

It is not even only about the valiant stories – as tremendously significant as they are.

All of these things are good and necessary, but it is all about love, cherishing human life, and pursuing what is right and just throughout time – theirs and ours. It is about finding our purpose and place in the world, and deciding firmly where we will end up.  It is about real people and real decisions – ‘yes’ or ‘no‘, choosing black or white and not sitting on the fence.  It is about whether you are for God or not, and for good or not.  It is really that simple and that difficult.

So today we say ‘Lest We Forget’.

And yet.

Our actions show that actually, we do forget, and often.

Over and over and over again.

We remember World Wars I and II and subsequent wars, and those who fought in them.  We do not forget their deaths, and more importantly, the lives they lived.  We must also not forget that killing, hurting, and fighting others is still happening in our time on many fronts, on and off the battlefield.  It is happening in our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our minds, and worldwide against Covid-19.

And yet why can it seem like war is sometimes the only recourse if it means eliminating an evil and autocratic regime or person, in order to save the lives of many others (for example, if Adolf Hitler had been done away with sooner, millions of Jewish people may have been saved)?  As people of love and peace we hate war and battle, and yet it sometimes seems necessary to bring to birth a greater good, freedom, or purpose on earth.  Is this God’s plan?  Is it a mystery?  This is something I have been grappling with during the free Bible in a Year podcast study with Fr Mike Schmitz this year. 

As Fr Mike would say, man oh man, the Old Testament is a shocking read.  I have been familiar with the Bible my whole life, especially the New Testament and the Psalms, but only in pieces regarding the longer Old Testament stories.  The readings in the Old Testament are packed with the most horrendous stories of war, battle, immorality, impurity, betrayal, and sin.  Thousands of people were killed.  Why is all of this even in there – Sacred Scripture for goodness sakes?

And yet.

So many pieces of God’s puzzle have been falling into place for me as I follow this podcast and study Scripture more deeply.  It was somehow a relief to read those things – to absorb them and not flick them away out of embarrassment.  Why?

Because we have a God who knows that we are a terribly broken people, even if outward appearances suggest otherwise.  These biblical people were real people like you and I.  God is truly aware of everything in them and in us.  God knows our most profound secrets and weaknesses, and He knows that ever since Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden (Genesis 3) we are bound to fail and fall every time we say ‘no’ to him (that is, every time we turn away from Him by sinning) and therefore choose to live without Him.

In this brokenness and tendency to sin and fight and battle and hate others and ourselves – which is in all of us due to the sin of our first parents – God still amazingly sees us as His beloved ones and calls us back over and over and over again.  Why? 

Because He remembers, where we forget.

He remembers that He created us in His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26). 

He remembers who we are and whose we are – His.

He remembers that we are but dust.

It is we who forget and so we stray, and fight, and struggle, and cry.

But before us is an eternal invitation to know that when we fall we must keep turning to God like a sunflower turns to the morning sun after darkness. 

We love imperfectly.  We face little and not-so-little wars in each moment of our lives.  No one is exempt from this – we just have to keep on reaching out to Him.  Talk to Him.  Pray to God.  The daily battle is truly within, so remember Him.

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