A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
-Ecclesiastes 3:8, The Message
………
Every October, I rebel and revolt against the state’s static and stagnant social studies standards.
All in the name of student engagement and creativity.
While I don’t personally celebrate Halloween, we explore the history behind it along with allowing the kids to explore the most haunted places in the world. Among those on the list I distribute is the ship, RMS Queen Mary.
Most of the kids who sign up for this one come back to relate that its not that haunted, there are none of the grotesque and gruesome murders and mayhem that they Netflix binge. Or from their hours of horror and hacking on the video games.
But it is haunted by humanity, I respond. Think about the lives and stories of the ship. Both of those in historical reality and those in psychological paredolia.
For background, the Queen Mary made its debut during the Great Depression, carrying still-affluent passengers between Europe and New York in what can be equated to a modern day cruise ship (minus a few slides or go cart tracks). With the outbreak of World War 2, the Queen Mary was painted grey and gutted to transport soldiers to theaters of war. It’s speed and stealth, along with its color, garnered it the nickname the Grey Ghost. Following the war, the ship once again became a tourist trap until airline travel and age forced her into retirement. She is now museum-moored in California.
Because of her differing duality, the Queen Mary has become a symbol for humanity, shadowing the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3.
For it represents times (and perspectives) on both peace and war.
Along with it, a million different interpretations and opinions of both.
One person’s peace represented by white and the dove from above could be someones black funeral clothes of war and death from above.
And there is grey in the in-between. The transitions. The balance. The haunting.
Permit me a moment to explain.
I am currently struggling with sin.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m always struggling with sin.
As we all are.
But its really been bothering me lately.
My peace is indeed solid and stable in Savior.
My war lies in the steps that need to be taken to deal with that sin.
Am I willing to endure the pain, the uncomfort, the embarrassment, the humility to do so?
As I hear Piper (and others) scream in my mind, I need to pull out of the grey area of spiritual lethargy (or the lingering peace-time mindset) and make war on my sin.
Not just allow the war to be fought by others but joining aggressively in an offensive against it.
Faith in action…not faith inaction.
Like the Queen Mary, sloughing off the carefree tourist attitude and refitting my interior (and as a result, my exterior), for the battle ahead.
Beauty for blood.
And at the end of this offensive, I may once again find a season of peace…either in this life or the next.
Beauty after blood.
But for now, it is a time of war. Of mortification. Of not killing other human beings who disagree with me or humor me. But for stabbing into, and prying out, the sin that so easily trips us up. Pulls us away from Savior. Deceives us into lethargy and laziness. Advocates for addiction and alcoholism. Soothes our bruised ego or lustful desires. Entertains us with distractions and diversions.
Although I don’t feel like I articulated this thought as well as could be, you get the point though.
The Queen Mary represents the duplicitous dichotomy of this verse. How we can live things that were, see them how they are now, and envision the possibilities in the future.
Always remember what the Prince of Peace says (as recorded in Matthew 10:34), I didn’t come to make peace but war…
And yes, the Queen Mary is haunted. If for nothing else than conjurers thoughts such as these.