A Long Way Gone… the redemption

A Long Way Gone is a book about redemption. Boy soldiers lose everything… their family… their opportunity… their hope… their childhood… their innocence… and many lose their lives, but a few are able to be delivered and receive a new life.

The Fall: Without warning the war will come to a village and in an instance an 11 year old boy (like Ishmael) will be thrust into a war. He is handed an AK-47 and sent out to face an ambush. He quickly learns to kill out of fear. He numbs the pain with marijuana and cocaine. He then is motivated to kill out of revenge for the loss of his family. He further numbs the pain with more drugs. Then he kills for mere survival. By no choice of their own… boys become inhumane killers.

In an interview with Jon Stewart, Ishmael said, "It is easy to turn a boy into a killer… It is hard to help him regain his humanity."

The Road to Redemption: Only by mere grace are boys allowed the opportunity to have a second chance on life. In Ishmael’s case some UNICEF soldiers bought him from his commander and took him to a rehabilitation camp. But that is just the beginning, because real change comes from the inside out. Here is a story from Ishmael’s first week in rehab (p. 135)…

It was war all over again. Perhaps the naïve foreigners thought that removing us from the war would lessen our hatred fro the RUF. It hadn’t crossed their minds that a change of environment wouldn’t immediately make us normal boys; we were dangerous, and brainwashed to kill. They had just started this process of rehabilitation, so this was one of the first lessons they had to learn.

Ishmael was one of the lucky ones. He has regained his humanity. He has a new family… new opportunity… a new life.

A Common Story: In one sense (not to diminish Ishmael’s story) this is a universal story. It is the story of the Bible. We have all been thrust into a spiritual war and we often don’t grasp onto the larger story of what is going on. Life strips away our innocence and can turn us into narcissistic, self-reliant, skeptical survivalists. We need someone to graciously lift us out of the turmoil and give us a new life… but the change comes from within. New life is a gift that gives us new hope… a new future… and a second chance.