Tanks rumbling across muddy fields. Bombs falling. Smoke billowing from demolished buildings. Families huddling underground while explosions rock the streets above them.
The eyes of the world are turned on Ukraine, and so begins something we never thought we'd see again on European soil: war.
We watch in anguish, helpless and infuriated. We watch in horror. We watch, we weep, and we pray.
Again, like so many times before, it's the strong against the weak: missiles and troops in the hands of the mighty, while innocent people run for safety.
As I've watched the unfolding of this war with the rest of us, I've begun to see there's more to strength and weakness than I ever realized. The strongest can be weak - and the weak and small are actually incredibly strong.
Vladimir Putin is a tyrant, sure of his right to domination. Well, every tyrant is fallible. Look at the tyrants of today and throughout history: they are supremely dangerous in their cunning and power, but also, somewhere, they have a weakness that can bring them down. They're cold and swaggering, but underneath they're full of fear. Fear of liberty, of free speech, of the people they claim to serve. They are arrogant, and in their arrogance, weak - unable to listen to words of counsel or see clearly; most of all, they're enslaved to their own greed, paranoia, and need for absolute power.
As we watch Putin begin this war, we've seen the many forms that strength can take to rein in a tyrant. All around the world, people are finding a way to say: we will not allow this. In a world where we are all linked, we will try to stop you in any way we can.
This crisis has demanded the response of so many nations, allies standing together for what is right. Watch the headlines: with every negotiation, every meeting, every sanction, you see the strength of unity, as the powers of the world work together to stop this war in every way possible.
There's strength, too, in protest and outrage, as hundreds of thousands of people throng the streets in an outpouring of support. Power, as well, in compassion, as we see in the bordering countries welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Finally, look again at those streets in Kyiv, and you'll see most moving strength of all: the defiant power of people just like you and me. People who are fighting to defend their country, from old men to teenagers who've never held a gun. They are the strongest of all, for they carry in their hearts the love of their country. And we see the strength, too, of the people who endure every attack and still keep finding a way to go on.
We can't know how this will end. But we can watch and pray, welcome the refugees and give all we can to support their cause and ease their suffering.
May true strength prevail.
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