The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is acclaimed as a giant in world literature and his epic work War and Peace is recognised as one of the finest novels ever written.
Tolstoy wrote in depth about Napoleon’s battle plans for invading Russia in 1812, as the military strategist detailed specific orders, choreographing the way he envisioned the battle should go.
Tolstoy asserts, in the final analysis that battles are won by the spirit, passion and willingness of individual soldiers themselves. War and Peace raises questions about what matters in life and what comes after war, with the author debunking conventional top-down leadership, placing weight on the bottom-up importance of soldiers themselves who ultimately fight battles.
Close up of a historic Napoleonic uniform. Photo: Mikhail Nilov. Pexels.com. : https://www.pexels.com
This connects to complexities being faced in Israel right now. Who will be the rulers of a post-war Gaza, should Hamas be removed from its powerbase? What might the continuing role of Israel look like in Gaza? And of course, what will be the impact on Israeli society once the smoke clears, as it were, when tough questions and painful realities are confronted?
About 20 years after he’d written War and Peace, Tolstoy wrote another book in 1879 titled A Confession. He was still seeking answers to tough questions about the meaning and purpose of life. “Who am I..? Where did I come from and where are we heading..?”
And here we are today, 145 years on from Tolstoy pondering life’s issues…I checked to see how many wars have been fought beyond Tolstoy’s day when he struggled for meaningful conclusions to life – there’s been hundreds – nothing has changed with time passing. The world is still lost, lacking direction and wilfully bungling along, alienated from the goal and purpose for which we were put on earth for – that is to live in relationship with God.
Without that relationship there will always be a void, an emptiness and profound lack of purpose. Things are seriously wrong… something is missing and it all comes down to God being relegated to irrelevance and man asserting his own ability to make life work – on his terms.
In another field altogether, was the creative phenomenon Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the group Queen. He asks in one of the last songs written for the ‘Miracle’ album, “Does anyone know what we are living for?” In spite of amassing a fortune and fans galore, Freddie stated in an interview shortly before his death in 1991 that he was desperately lonely. He said, “You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man and that is the most bitter loneliness. Success brought me world idolisation and millions of pounds but it’s prevented me from having the one thing we all need- a loving, ongoing relationship.”
He was right to speak of an ‘ongoing relationship’ as the one thing we all need. No human relationship will ever satisfy entirely, nor can it be completely ongoing. Life will resemble a war zone until we find the missing peace, drawn from knowing God personally.
Jesus said, “I am the Way”…He alone offers peace and hope through relationship with God, now and into eternity.
Freddie Mercury Statue in Montreux, Switzerland. Photo: Andrea Piacquadio. Pexels.com
