Every so often in history there are major turning moments. In living memory the coming down of the Berlin Wall certainly has to be up there. Now the tragic scenarios in Afghanistan are there for us to view, though what do I know about such troubles? Yes we pray, but even still it is hard not to feel a sham in the light of what many are going through on the ground; they living in the very real fear of what might yet unfold.
There are geographies that are key to unlock much greater areas and I am sure Afghanistan is one of those. On the silk road, a theme that has been highlighted for a number of people, both in terms of the shift West to East and a restoration of trade that is not based on exploitation and greed (the sin of Sodom?). Kabul as a major crossroads, now in the centre of news.
Afghanistan has been described as the ‘graveyard of Empires’ having lived through successive attempts to be controlled. In recent centuries Britain has had a dubious history there; there are strong pointers that the initial arming and financing of the Taliban came from USA sources. I have no idea what should be done / should have been done politically, and it is certainly much easier to find what is wrong rather than propose something truly redemptive (co-words are compromising and ‘fallen’).
I am deeply troubled by the pain in that area of our globe, and do not write lightly. Yet it is a global sign that an era is ending. The end of an era does not normally come in a moment but there are often major ‘earth tremors’ marking the time. And so much of what was just continues (Jesus refusal to become the emperor of Rome, signalled the end of Rome but the history books tell us the empire continued for centuries).
I consider that the next years will increasingly signal the shift that is taking place, a shift from West to East, and a shift in where the control of financial exchange takes place. I am sure much will continue but 2022 will see a series of shock waves, even a number into what we might consider is very secure.
In history so much shift of power is from one power to the next, with the new power ‘eating’ the previous one. We have to see something different, something deeper that opens our world to dimensions of the kingdom of God. A simple shift of centres is not enough. Shifts in the global scene are a signal that there are shifts in the ‘spiritual’ scene that can be engaged with. I think we have to lose glib talk of the ‘sovereignty of God’ as if s/he is in control in some sort of ‘ruling over’ kind of way. Seems that the control was always to be in the hands of humanity, and that control was never to be over other people, but to lovingly shape the future, dig the channels where healing water can flow.
The future is going to be messy… but God will be found in strange places.
And for Afghanistan. It is one of a number of places where the memory is held strongly. The bloodshed embeds the memory deeper than before. Just as with the human person and the memory embedded within the body, so the land acts as the corporate memory, people no longer knowing why they act the way they do, simply responding to an unconscious but very real memory. A healing of the memory is so needed in that area. If there are those who have connections within the land, come into agreement with them about the healing of history.
And we have to pray in this messy era that there are those who become channels for the ‘love stream’ of heaven, and praying without simply pulling on history to suggest they will have to be immediate followers of Jesus. The messy days are here; but where we go Jesus will go before us.
