History tells us that World War One, the “Great War”, was the beginning of the unfathomable. The world was at war. It lasted for four years, three months, and two weeks long. Little known, and not as loudly whispered is the ignominy of this week: the war in Ukraine officially exceeds the length of that Terrible War. At the end of February 2022, Russia marched into Ukraine in an act of aggression against its sovereign neighbour. Today, the fight persists; casualties continue to mount; drones and missiles still threaten the airspace; territorial gains waft to and fro like a frothing sea leaving a trail of damage each time the land changes hands. Depending on whom you read, the estimated death toll from Russia is currently about 500,000, excluding 20,000 mercenaries hired by Russia and 6,000 troops from South Korea. On the Ukrainian side, the current death toll is reported to be about 160,000. That’s a total of 686,000 souls. Multiply that by four times, and you get the number of people injured, families left destitute, and empty chairs around the dining room where lively conversations would have taken place.
I read in Jonah 4:11 when God calls on Jonah to set aside his selfish anger. Read the verse carefully. The petulance of one man filled with egotistic, prejudicial and judgmental thinking blinded him from the impending death of 120,000 souls in a city called Nineveh that God was willing to save. And then it hits you. 120,000 souls is only 18% of the number of who been killed in this war between Russia and Ukraine. Beyond this war is the war in Iran, the missiles in Lebanon, the murders by Muslim terrorists in Nigeria, the Hindu attacks in northern India, the deaths by Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the riots in Bolivia, the rampant organized crime in Serbia, the kidnappings and murders in Mexico. The list goes on. After a while, the death toll is just a blur of unfathomable numbers, and the shadow of selfish, egoistic, prejudicial and judgmental anger stretches long over every scene of death.
Phil McHugh was sitting at lunch with his friend Greg Nelson in 1983 when he noticed the deep sadness in the eyes of the woman who served them. So moved were they by the plight of one soul that the encounter served as the inspiration of their song, “People Need the Lord“. The first verse of their song reads, “Everyday they pass me by. I can see it in their eyes; empty people filled with care…headed who knows where. On they go through private pain, living fear to fear; laughter hides the silent cries only Jesus hears.” It speaks of the sensitivity to the human soul that God calls Jonah to on that hill overlooking Nineveh. It is the same sensitivity He calls us to as we look at a world torn by selfishness. As the haunting chorus of Phil and Greg’s song asks, “When will we realize that we must give our lives? For people need the Lord.” Perhaps it is time to stop gazing downwards at the grass at our feet and lift our eyes and look into the fields because they are white already with the harvest (John 4:35). Time to act. People need the Lord.
