War tends to make believers out of anybody, because when it comes down to it, faith makes you stronger. It puts courage in your heart, determination in your mind, strength in your limbs. It empties you of cares and worries, and pours in peace and solemnity. The arrows and slings may come at you, and yes, they may take yout body down – but around your spirit, faith builds a bulwark that they can never penetrate.
Faith however, is just a word, if not moved by the reflection of prayer, and it is often prayer which sets our hearts at ease and stirs our blood to action.
Like most Americans, I was born a Christian – a Catholic, specifically. But while a man might inherit his religion, he cannot inherit his faith. It is something he must discover on his own, and all the priests and all the evangelists will avail him nothing if his heart does not reach out and find the pathway to God of its own free will.
As a young man, I didn’t realize this, and found in time that I was speaking the prayers and pronouncements in church as a pantomime might act out a character. Originally ascribing this to the rote memorization of Catholic doctrine and creed, I soon came to see that it was something more, and that mere muscle-memory prayer was, in fact, no prayer at all.
Although I never left my faith, I began to question it. Not in a negative, destructive way, but in a probing way, seeking for a greater understanding. That God exists, I never had any doubt. His nature, his goals for man, and questions like that, however, I wanted to understand fully. College introduced me to philosophy and after I graduated, I began to study it extensively. I found a lot of arguments about man, eternity and the nature of the universe. Those arguing against God I found lacking, intellectually. Athiests are the world's greatest liars. They deny faith exists, and then claim that they know for absolute certainty that God does not exist. Yet how can one believe what one cannot empirically prove - unless one accepts it on faith?
Agnostics at least - those who don't know if God exists, but refuse to rule Him out - are intellectually honest. But even then, as one philosopher said, "If you believe and God does not exist, you have lost nothing. If you disbelieve and he does exist, you have lost everything."
The more I learned intellectually through my brain, and the more I perceived the world with my heart, I only grew stronger in my faith. And when things are going bad, I always turned to it. In time, I discovered that faith in God - together with faith in myself - can make anything possible.
I know not everybody is as strong a believer these days, but it would be a vain, vacuous existence to live life based on the whim of random events. Whether you believe in God or not, we all need prayer. A life in which we don’t reflect, in which we don’t put aside all our problems and turn to a single point in the universe on which to focus our dreams, hopes and aspirations – is not a life worth bearing. The proof of that is best shown when a group of soldiers goes into a firefight or is hit with a mortar attack. Though there may be athiests among the eventual survivors when the attack begins, there is almost never one left when it's over.
* * *
A lot of folks tell me they're praying for me. People I've known for years and those I hardly know. At my dad's funeral, a lady approached me and gave me a small cross to take with me. The woman was familiar, but I couldn't place her and probably hadn't seen her in 20 years. Nonetheless, she took the time, the effort - and the compassion - to pray and to think of me. Many others have done the same. Some who have read my writings here, but who have never met me in person have prayed for me.
First off, I must say how much I appreciate and am humbled by that. And though I am grateful for those words and thoughts, it would be wrong for me to ask them to do no more.
Because the truth is, there are a lot more folks here who need those prayers much more than I do, and it would be a shame to forget them.
My life is one of vague dangers - things that can come out of the blue. The rocket that hit my trailer while I wasn't there. The random bullets raining down from an attack a mile away, which killed two people in the last week on base. These are dangers, to be sure, and it is when I think of these that I am grateful for the prayers.
But there are hundreds of Americans - brave men all - who daily strap on their body armor, climb into a Humvee - and venture out into the unknown, to battle the enemy. The soldier in the patrol, who walks warily down the streets of Baghdad, Samarra, Mosul or Fallujah, moving steadily in a zig-zag pattern to disrupt enemy snipers. The young female soldier delivering school books or candy to kids, who never knows whether or not a vehicle-borne IED is coming around the corner. The men kicking in the doors when they know a terrorist is on the other side. The men in the Explosive Ordinance Detail, defusing an IED remotely, hoping that another isn't hidden right next to their highly-exposed vehicle.
And not only Americans, but our brave allies, who are fighting alongside us to bring peace and freedom to this land. These soldiers are not mere window-dressing for political purposes, as many would suggest. They are fighting and dying. Poles who patrol in troubled Diwaniyah province, Brits who face danger in Basra. Koreans who protect the minority Kurds from sectarian warfare. Georgians, Romanians, El Salvadorans...and yes, Iraqis too, in great numbers and growing every day.
These are the people who need your prayers, and a lot of them need those prayers far, far more than I. They all have families, friends and dreams and want nothing more than to return safely to them.
If there is one thing I can ask of those who know me, and those who pray for me, is that you take a little extra time to remember these people too. As you pray for me, pray again for the thousands who have no one to pray for them. Pray for those who see the greatest danger. Pray for those who have families back home, and who have so very much to lose.
Pray for them all. And pray they return safe.
