Learning in war-time

C.S. Lewis, himself a veteran, feels called during the second World War to talk about the role of learning and indeed all purely societal activities. This is because during a war, citizens of the nation at war often feel called to go into service. Lewis uses common sense to counter act that extreme notion in saying that not all can be or should be soldiers. A more recent example of this is the United States Army which has it set up such that for every single soldier on the battlefield, there are twenty more individuals as support for that soldier. Also one can sight the obvious fact that if all people were soldiers then who would make the ammunition, grow the food, and do all the other things that are necessary for running a successful war campaign.

Lewis also brings out the argument that people dying is not something new. As a matter of fact, all people die so "war does not increase the frequency of death" all it can do is alter the time of death. From there Lewis says that even soldiers are not constantly focused on the war because war is a finite thing and as such cannot occupy one's every waking minute. This is why one needs an eternal thing upon which to fix his thoughts and, for Christians, that is God. Thus we, as Christians, should live to serve God in all that we do, and that God can be served even by the most menial tasks and we are not called to live, which is to spend our every waking minute, for our country, for saving others lives, or for securing the safety of our country. This is an important thing and helps us understand why we may not be participating actively in the war effort even though our country is fighting for freedom, ours or otherwise, but we still are living in accordance with God's will.

I think Lewis has a good point that just because we, as a nation, are at war, does not mean that God calls us to drop all learning to suddenly become soldiers. However, this does not mean that no-one should become a soldier either. After all, Society must find a balance and not be swinging wildly between two extremes or she will fall, but, above all, one must always put God first before deciding whatever he will do for indeed even the most self-sacrificing or honorable acts in the world will do him no good unless they be lifted up as an offering before God.