Cindy Sheehan became the poster-child of the anti-war movement. She lost her son, Casey in April 2004 in a battle in Baghdad. Sheehan received national attention when she camped outside of President Bush’s home in Texas wanting to meet to talk about her son’s death.
But on Monday, she decided to walk away from the anti-war movement.
In her written goodbye, CNN quotes, “I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.”
Sheehan explained how her crusade has cost her marriage and left her with nothing. Her relationship with her surviving children was also strained.
As I was reading this story, couple of things ran through my mind:
2) Is there anything in this world that is worth losing your marriage and your family over?
I don’t know why but I had compassion for her. She believed in something with all her heart and she was “all in.” But at the end, she said she had become more disillusioned with both the Republican and Democratic parties – and with the whole “system.”
Then, this got me thinking about Christianity and how Christ calls us to be “all in” – to the point of giving up everything, even our parents and the people that we love (Luke 14:26-27).
What is the difference? What if we get disillusioned at the end? Is this single-mindedness in following Christ worth it?
I guess the answer lies in the common denominator.
Is the “cause” worth giving everything for – and even dying for?