You cant black out the stars

I sit down to write this entry as I am about two hours away from going outside my FOB. I imagine this exact sequence of events has been played over millions of times throughout the history of wars on this earth. I am not nervous in any way but there are a few guys who still get the jitters before leaving. Maybe a little bit of nervousness is a good thing, maybe it will keep them on their toes. I try to be careful not to become too lax but for some reason I fear nothing in Iraq. Now I know this is a lot of feelings sharing from me but I don’t want to make this too much of a personal thing, I am trying to describe the feelings that soldiers have in the face of some type of danger. I know we aren’t storming the beaches of Normandy, or dropping in on a hot LZ behind enemy lines, but we do face our own dangers that are relatively new to the battlefield. Everyday soldiers go outside the gate they take the risk of it possibly being their last time, and depending where they are, some even risk their lives simply walking around their base.

During my pre-deployment training I had the opportunity to help out my family in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. While there my uncle, who was in the service himself, gave me a small daily devotional book that he got from his grandfather. Inside the cover there was written the date December 8, 1942. The devotional was written for the soldiers during WWII and had belonged to my uncle’s grandfather when he served in the military during that time. Each day the book addresses in some ways how to maintain one’s faith and live godly during war. All around the country different pastors contributed a daily lesson to the book. Some offer advice on how to better walk with the Lord, some offer advice on how to make it through tough times, and some offer advice on how soldiers should treat their enemies. The striking thing about the devotional though is the parallels is has to this very war and I am assuming every war ever fought in America’s history.

Soldiers are the same now as they were in WWII. They are fighting for a cause that most of them believe is right. I am sure many soldiers during WWII wondered how fighting the Nazis was their job since the Nazis hadn’t invaded America. Sure we should fight the Japanese (al qaeda) because they bombed us, but why the Nazis, all they were doing was killing and torturing people in Europe, why is that our job to take care of? The same sentiment rings true in today’s military. Most of us believe we are fighting an evil enemy and liberating an oppressed people while there is still a number of soldiers who have no idea why we are here.

I read the devotional every day so as not only to be encouraged in my walk with the Lord, but also in some way to connect with the soldiers of yesterday. Every soldier in America’s history is connected in some way. The connection comes from their fight for freedom whether it was against the King, slavery, communism, or terrorism just to name a few. They are also connected because war is an ugly thing and they haven’t always known how to cope with it. They have needed help along the way and continue to need help in dealing with certain aspects of war.

The devotional for me encourages me that I am doing the right thing: fighting evil and spreading liberty to a society unaccustomed to it. It reminds me that there are bigger things out there besides this little war of ours. It reminds me that this world is far from perfect, and that if history repeats itself that it never will be. It also teaches me the lesson that if only we could learn from the past instead of repeating it then we might be able to move forward as a society. Until that happens there will still be war and suffering just as there has always been.

My favorite passage from the devotional comes from the entry on December 1st. The author of that day tells the story of a farmer who had been ordered by a captain of the conquering army in his country to turn over his crops in order to feed the captain’s men. The captain told the farmer that if he was stubborn they would take away everything the farmer had. In reply the farmer told the captain that he couldn’t take away the stars. The farmer knew that he could lose everything he had, his crops, his home, and his family, but he knew that the captain could only affect worldly things. The world was going to continue to turn and the stars were going to continue to shine. This passage encourages me to go outside the gate each day because no matter what a terrorist can take from me he can never make the world stand still and he can never black out the stars.