Swords Into Plowshares

Men like war.

Women like war too, but to them it is a more subtle craft. Just ask any girl who was on the outside looking in while attending middle school. It has been remarked that war is an extension of diplomacy by other means. That at some point when the talking breaks down the guns come out. It's the ultimate extension of corporal punishment when waged nation to nation, when a people agrees that another people have transgressed so grievously that armed conflict and the mass shedding of blood is all that can now cure the ills visited on them.

War is when you stop trying to fix the relationship and turn towards hurting the other person. When you decide that the ills against you by the other person can only be cured through that persons destruction. I've often said that in marriage you cannot win a fight, you can only hurt the other person until they stop fighting back, and that is war.

This week I'm fasting war. I'm not going to pick up any swords, I'm not going to invade any one else's opinions, I'm not going to use violence in my words to accomplish any end.

Charem

It means devoted to the Lord utterly, as through its destruction. When Israel was told to take Jericho, the city itself would be charem to the Lord, and they could take no plunder from it. I have found in my life there were habits and pleasures so destructive to me that I had to make them charem. They had to go away.

This week, war for me is charem, any battles that need to be fought will be completely in the Lord's hands, I will not fight them for Him. Not that some day He won't call me to fight again, for just causes, against those evils whose advanced will only be stopped by forceful resistance. But for this week, I'll beat my sword into a plowshare, I'll plant seeds where I can, tend the land I'm given, and wait for the glory of the Lord to reveal itself. Blessed be the name of the Lord.