A day of contradictions...

The wonderful African-American poet, Lucille Clifton, died last weekend at the age of 64. I used one of her poems on Ash Wednesday as an invitation to embrace the season of Lent as an inward journey. Her poem, "we are running" is spot on:

We are running

running and

time is clocking us

from the edge like an only

daughter.

our mothers stream before us,

cradling their breasts in their

hands.

oh pray that what we want

is worth this running,

pray that what we're running

toward

is what we want.

I was thinking of this poem as our Sabbath began with a long and leisurely read of the New York Times over breakfast before we headed out into the woods for cross country skiing. The snow was too wet and sticky, however, to really be satisfying so after about 45 minutes of mostly walking in our skis, we called it quits. It clearly was not what we wanted.

Later in the day, I had been invited to give an invocation for a National Guard troop of engineers who are about to deploy for Afghanistan. It was a humble and complex honor and I wept more than I expected riding over to the event. I wept, too, as a new friend sang the National Anthem (I almost always do) and I was moved deeply when the young men entered the auditorium.

One of the complexities of this war is that more often than not, it is our troops on the ground who are best able to advance the cause of peace. Given the extreme violence and volatility, NGOs are mostly ineffective - or simply AWOL. So it is too harsh for the usual peace-makers to play a role. So now there is a two tiered process that I pray will be successful: One involves driving Al Queda out of their rural strongholds; and the second has to do with sharing resources, security, road building and even the building of schools with the remaining civilians.

In Greg Mortenson's new book, Turning Stones into Schools, he tells how General McCrystal understands that counter-insurgency must be about sharing resources, hope and schools with people who have been forgotten and abused by urban politicians for decades. This is not a war that can be won simply with ground troops or so-called "smart" weaponry. It must be about sharing safety, justice, resources and hope with those who have historically been used and discarded. And now Three Cups of Tea is required reading for all troops deploying for Afghanistan.

So, I prayed for these young men (they were exclusively men) who will bring their engineering skills to this wounded place - and wondered if all this running would be worth it. I prayed for peace, I prayed for caring for comrades in arms as well as the Afghan civilians and I prayed for a safe and honorable end to this tragic war.

It was an unusual Sabbath, to be sure, and it made the cost of this war and peace vivid for me in new ways. I will be following our Berkshire troops as this year unfolds and holding them close in my heart. I will also be urging out new church peace-makers to both raise immediate funds for Greg Mortenson's schools in Afghanistan and build a long-term commitment with his organization so that we might be a part of the rebuilding of that land. For I am certain that THAT type of running would be worth the effort.

And at the end of this Sabbath I found myself feeling like this tune by Kings of Leon...