It's time for peace

I read this except in a blog by Ray Ortlund today. I think I really like it.

The War Is Over

On December 26, 1944, the Japanese army sent Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda to the Philippine island of Lubang. His orders were to fight on indefinitely. Word never reached him several months later when World War II ended. For thirty more years, he went on fighting in the context of a war that existed only in his mind. He lived in hiding, came out at night to steal food from the villages, and even shot at people now and then. 

Ten years into hiding, he found a newspaper article about himself, but he thought it was a trick to get him to surrender. The Philippine government dropped leaflets into the jungle, asking him to come out. They brought loudspeakers in and shouted, “Onoda, the war is over.” One day his own brother stood at the microphone and begged him to give up, but he wouldn’t believe it. Onoda fought on until 1974, when the Japanese government sent in his old commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, who ordered Onoda to surrender. He finally gave up.

Onoda was trapped in 1945, shut out the good news of peace, and lost thirty years of his life hiding in jungles, loyal to a lost cause. We can be like Onoda today when we trap our thoughts and feelings in a war that God ended long ago.

The night Jesus was born, the angels stepped up to the microphone and shouted, “Peace on earth” (see Luke 2:14). For two thousand years, God has been dropping leaflets of the good news into our jungles. Through his cross, Christ won the victory. Isn’t it time to give up on our ridiculous lost causes, come out of hiding, and start living again? 

God has not only reconciled us to himself, but he has given us the ministry of reconciliation. What are we waiting for? Let’s go make some peace.