Nation Healing

The second half of the Civil War pitted Generals Sherman and Johnston against each other.

These two men each fought the other from Chattanooga to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Savannah, then Savannah to Columbia, then Columbia to North Carolina.

They both, for obvious and less than obvious reasons, had every right to dislike, even hate, the other.

Sherman said of Johnston, "He's the most wily and dangerous opponent I've ever faced."  The two had in fact learned much of each other before they ever met face to face.

In fact, the first time they ever met face to face was at Johnston's surrender.  When the two met for the first time ever, the first thing Sherman did was hand Johnston a telegram from Washing D.C. that said Lincoln had been assassinated (notice the black band of mourning on Sherman's left arm).

The assassination of Lincoln, Johnston's use of land mines, (which Sherman despised), Sherman's march to the sea, the endless days of fighting, the burning of Columbia.

There was gallons of fuel on the fire that burned between these two.

When they met face to face however, something happened.

Johnston handed over 89,270 confederate soldiers to Sherman's army.

Sherman issued each of them ten days rations (many of the confederates were starving), gave them horses and mules so they could plant crops, issued a huge distribution of corn, meal, and flour to be sent to the citizens of Georgia and the Carolinas.  In the terms of surrender Sherman gave protection to the politicians of the confederacy, something he'd be reprimanded for by Washington DC.

Johnston said to his former enemy, "Your attitude reconciles me to what I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life, that of having to encounter you in the field."

After the war, Johnston was an incredibly popular speaker around the south at confederate veterans events.  Each time he received an invitation to such an event, he'd inquire if Sherman was to be denounced and his name harassed by the confederate veterans.  If the event planners said yes, Johnston would decline the event.  The two men stayed in touch, wrote often, and shared stories whenever they were in the same town.

Johnston was even one of Sherman's pallbearers.

The lesson from these two is perhaps just as relevant as it was then.

When the conflict is over, it's not enough to simply claim to be at peace, it takes action.

There's a saying, "the effort to heal the wound must be 10 times greater than the effort it took to inflict it."  Think of how much effort, time, and money have been poured into the current wound in our nation.

The realization that it will take ten times that effort to make effective healing is a daunting one.

There is however, hope in the story above.

Those men were a huge part of "reconstruction", the healing process that America went through after the war.  If they can make such effective healing after an actual war, isn't that encouraging to us, people who have been involved in a war of words?  Notice that before national healing could occur, these two men made healing on a personal level a priority.

As a Christian, you may not be able to devote the resources to the healing effort that would match the resources it took it cause the wound.  What you can do though, is start the personal healing. 
   
It's wrong to look to the administration to give the example for healing.  They should be the example, but it very well may turn out that they aren't.

So then what if we are?

There's been enough scandal, deceitfulness, and crooked dealings to prove to us that expecting executive members of government to be example setters is simply expecting too much of them.

The example will come from the people.