Posted November 10, 2026
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday afternoon. The articles accuse Hegseth of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including illegally launching the Iran war and killing hundreds of civilians in boat strikes against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean. The action could force a vote on Hegseth’s future as soon as this week.
Massie, who lost reelection earlier this year, said the effort is aimed at pushing President Trump to replace Hegseth before Democrats can launch their own impeachment process. For his part, Hegseth said he plans to hold a press conference this morning, stating that he is “not worried” about the impeachment articles. The conference is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. ET.
There is precedent here. In the 2006 midterms, opposition to the Iraq War was chief among voters’ concerns, an election in which Democrats won control of the House and Senate. President George W. Bush then accepted the resignation of embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
I have no idea whether Secretary Hegseth will suffer the same fate, of course. But I do think it’s more than interesting that two wars, waged in a part of the world more than six thousand miles from our eastern shores, so directly affected the American leaders who led them.
Most people consider Iraq and Iran to be part of the “Middle East,” but why?
The term was popularized in 1902 by American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan to “designate the area between Arabia and India.” In 1957, the US government began referring to the area from Libya on the west to Pakistan on the east as the “Middle East,” and so it is often called today.
Here’s the problem: If you’re in either Iraq or Iran, you’re east of half of the world and west of the other half. You’re only the “Middle East” if those who name you are west of you, i.e., in “the West.” And who decided that they should get to decide what your region should be called? People in America sometimes call China and Japan the “Far East,” but they could call us the same.
When the Greek philosopher Anaximander made one of the first known maps six centuries before Christ, he pictured a round disc with “Europe” to the north, “Asia” to the southeast, and “Libya” to the southwest. We should not be surprised that Miletus (on the western coast of modern-day Turkey) was at the center, since he was in Miletus at the time.
Think about it: everywhere you go, you’re in the center of the world as you experience it. Everything east of you is now “the east,” and everything west is now “the west.”
This fact is of more than geographical significance; it points to a positive word worth considering in challenging days.
Back to the “Middle East”: A man from modern-day Iraq named Abraham had a wife named Sarah with whom they had Isaac, the son through whom the Jewish people trace their lineage (cf. Matthew 1:1). But many do not know that after Sarah’s death, Abraham also had sons with “Keturah, Abraham’s concubine” (1 Chronicles 1:32). Her six sons are then listed, as are the sons of two of them, all of them “the descendants of Keturah” (v. 33).
Here we find illustrated one of the most significant facts about our relationship with God: everyone has one. Not just Abraham’s wife, but also his concubine. We are all included: even those who reject God’s existence do not change his existence or the reality of his love for them.
Our Father knows our name (Isaiah 43:1), as he showed when he called Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel by theirs (Genesis 22:11; 46:2; Exodus 3:4; 1 Samuel 3:10). He knows our thoughts (Psalm 139:1–2), our tears (Psalm 56:8), and even numbers the hairs on our head (Luke 12:7).
Max Lucado said it well: “Your life emerges from the greatest mind, the kindest heart in the history of the universe, the mind and heart of God. You are God’s idea. And remember, God doesn’t have any bad ideas.”
All that to say, when God looks at a map of the world, you’re at its center. This has nothing to do with your merit and everything to do with his grace. His love for us is based on his character, not ours (1 John 4:8).
In a culture where even the most powerful among us can be impeached and removed from their office, where our material success depends on our performance and popularity, it’s easy to measure our worth by the way others measure us. I’m no different: I’m a success as a writer to the degree that you make me one by reading what I write and supporting what I do.
Consequently, it’s good to begin every day by reminding ourselves that we are God’s “beloved,” as Henri Nouwen called us. In his wonderful book on the subject, he wrote:
For most of my life I have struggled to find to God, to know God, to love God. . . . Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?”
Do you agree?
“Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.” —Henri Nouwen
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