My heart is heavy this morning.
I’ve been reading about how the country of Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban, seemingly over night.
I don’t know much about the Taliban, other than it’s a Muslim group.
I also don’t know much about the situation, except that for the last 20 years, American has been in Afghanistan, ever since Sept. 11, 2001. I don’t know if we have been bringing war to that country over that score of years, or if we have been bringing peace, but America has been there, and now that American is not there, the Taliban is once in control.
Maybe that’s what the country wants. Maybe Afghanistan wants to be run and governed by people from the East, not the West. But maybe they don’t. Does the Taliban bring oppression? Or do they promote freedom? All I can read is the American-side of the story, which seems bleak.
It’s strange how something so far removed from oneself can have such an emotional impact. I remember when my country moved into Afghanistan. I was in fourth grade, and 9/11 had just happened. From my perspective, we went over to help the people after the Taliban inflicted much damage in America. But who knows if that’s how they people saw it.
All I know is, my heart hurts for oppression, and my prayer is that these people will not be oppressed under this new leadership. My hope is not in American justice, or that America always has the right answer and executes it in all the right ways. My hope is in a God of justice and that one day we will all be free from oppression, war and pain.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: We do not always know what is best or what is right, but hope in what is True and what is in Love.