By Scott Gurley (Relevant Magazine)
About a year ago I had the chance to go to Kabul, Afghanistan for a yearlong deployment with the U.S. Army. The experience was much different than I’d expected. I anticipated regularly engaging in firefights with insurgents and having to deal with rigorous and dangerous conditions. Instead, it was the spiritual battles and lessons learned that affected me most.
I’d been out of the U.S. before, but I’d never seen a place like Afghanistan. As un-politically correct as it sounds, I really believe that conditions there have as much to do with a spiritual war as they do physical ones. It is the sixth poorest country in the world, and its people are accustomed to corruption, violence and poverty at a level I’ve never experienced before. …
How refreshing to read the words of someone who has the courage to spell out the origin of suffering and violence – sin. Due to the shock factor it is more obvious in Afghanistan than here. But that just means we are too comfortable to notice! Of course it is much more satisfying to blame the military or the President or a political party, all of which we have the potential to change, than sin which is more powerful than anyone but God.