The Shield

 
I’ve been pondering what I wanted to write for this first column, with so many things spinning through my head each day about what needs to be said in this time when so many of us are timid and concerned for what others will think of us.  There will be many messages here in the coming weeks, and many thoughts that are sure to be controversial.  That isn’t the intent, I don’t much care for controversy.  I don’t much care for attention, nor crave the approval or validation of others.  But, I have been praying daily for guidance on what I am supposed to be doing here in this place and time, and this is where I have been led.

 
In the weeks ahead, there will be letters to the leaders of the world, the leaders of the churches, the people of the free countries, and those of the oppressed.  But for today, there is another message that occurred to me this week that needs to be voiced.  I was thinking of the news stories of the soldiers half way around the world from the place where I sit and write this note.  The stories of those who have died because they have thrown themselves upon a grenade, have fought on while wounded, have condemned themselves to save their fellow soldiers.  There was another story of a man in Iraq who saw a murderer heading toward a mosque to kill a hundred people.  Knowing it meant death, this man, in front of his children, threw himself into an embrace with the murderer, detonating the bomb before it could cause untold harm.  I hear these stories often, of the young men and women fighting the war against the evil emanating from the Middle East.  These ordinary men and women have chosen, with no extraordinary powers, to throw themselves daily into the breach so that the rest of us may know some peace and safety.  How awe inspiring to think that a simple human being, from a simple sense of duty, a simple sense of justice, can learn to do something so counterintuitive.  How many of you can imagine going against every instinct for survival to selflessly throw your life up as a shield for those around you?

 
There are many here, and around the world who have chosen to criticize from the safety of their homes, the comfort of their cushy jobs, the security of their free countries.  There are many who have grown tired of the constant yammering of war, of evil, of danger, and they have grown complacent in the ease of their lives so far away from the fronts of this war.  There are those who vilify the United States and her allies, even as they enjoy the protection and prosperities their actions bring. 

 
For all of you, I have a message, and I hope you hear me clearly.  The world is not built in shades of gray.  There is good and evil, there is right and wrong.  The men and women of Mohammed, the religion of Islam, that are seeking to subjugate and destroy the rest of the world’s people are quite simply evil and wrong.  The military of the USA, the British, the Canadians, the Australians, the Afghans, the new Iraq, and the other 30 + countries who are currently fighting in the Middle East are the soldiers and the men in those stories.  The leaders of these countries, have bravely and heroically called upon their militaries, who have willingly gone and thrown themselves on the grenade, continued to fire, embraced the murderer that is Islamic Fascism so that their fellows might continue to live in freedom, and by extension others might gain that freedom, and help to continue the fight.  There will always be evil, there will always be men and women who will use their positions of power to either use that evil to maintain that power, or to discourage the rest of us from persevering in the effort to thwart that evil.  By God’s grace though, there will also always be more of us who will be willing to sacrifice our comfort, our silence, and our lives if need be to see that justice and goodness prevails.

 
To the men and women who spend each day standing up for the cause of freedom, for the cause of good and right.  To those who sacrifice so much, whether you are on the battlefields, at home supporting those who fight and die in intelligence, diplomacy, or as the loved ones they are fighting for. To the ones of you walking down the street in your hometown, that throw yourself on the bomb meant for the innocents around you.  I, for one, salute you.  You are in my prayers, and I hope in the prayers of every other Christian on this planet.  Know that despite the outcry, despite the harangues, despite the obstacles your friends and foes alike sometimes throw in your path, your sacrifice is known, and cherished by those of us watching and waiting and praying for the causes you fight so valiantly for.  Thank you, and may God bless you and bring you safely home when the job is done.