Let's quiet the earth at the eleventh hour

Sometimes we need to step back from a situation and consider it differently in order to understand it more fully.  This Remembrance Day, I'd like to take you on a little journey that might startle you.  It certainly startled me, it woke me up a bit - made me more aware.  

I went digging around on the numbers related to World War 1.  I started by looking for information on how many Canadians were involved in WW1 and then I went down a bigger rabbit hole.  Here's what I discovered.  It isn't encouraging, it isn't inspiring.  It is sad.  It is a reflection on the ability of humans to wreak mayhem on one another and on the world.  And yet, I want to twist that wretchedness around and use it to encourage and inspire us to do better, to be better, to truly live into what our Creator designed us to do and be.  

Grim Facts

World population was estimated in 1900 to be 1.65 billion, by 2015 according to ourworldindata.org the population was 7.4 billion.History Learning Site states 8.5 million were killed and 21 million were injured in WW1..5% of the world's estimated population was killed in WW1.

In 1911 the population of Canada was approximately 7.2 million (Stats Can).One of the key battles of WW1 occurred at Passchendaele.  100,000 Canadians were sent to that battlefield.Over 1% of Canada's population was sent into just one of the many battles of WW1.  The population of Canada in 2016 is recorded by Stats Can as being 35.1 million.If 1% of our population was shipped off to fight a single battle today, it would mean 350,000 people going to one battle.

Perspective

During WW1, out of every 100 people you interacted with in your daily life - one would have been heading off to fight in the battle of Passchendaele. Others you knew would have been heading to Vimy Ridge or the other battlefields of WW11.  Everybody knew somebody who went.  Nobody was exempt from the fear, the tragedy, and the horror.  And for four years the world continued down a path of obliteration.

Hope 

At 11 a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918, sense prevailed and an armistice was signed.  Today, around the world people will gather to remember.  They will stop their chatter and their work at 11 a.m. for a moment of silence.  No matter what you are doing today, whether you are joining a Remembrance Day service or climbing a mountain.  Set the alarm on your watch for 11 a.m. and just stop.  Stop and think, pause and remember, and offer a prayer for peace in our world.