Moral Courage

Moral Courage                     

 

The fact that the Christian life is hard, seldom witnessed and beautiful to behold indicates it is worthwhile. The standard for the Christian life is intimidating to everyday people. One of the most brilliant examples of a human life is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Some of the things that attract me to him are moral courage, and physical bravery. John 2:13-25 shows his moral courage. He found men engaged in changing money in a part of the Temple where they should not have been. They were there with the support of Annas, the High Priest. There is evidence that they were charging inflated prices for the animal sacrifices, and making excess profit in exchanging money for the temple money with which the sacrifices had to be bought. In any case, they were desecrating His Father's House, and so our Lord acted as in verses 15 and 16, not caring in the least what the people would think or paying the slightest heed to the risk he ran of being assaulted. Jesus Christ was completely unbound by the customs and public opinion of the day. We too require moral courage if we are not to be afraid of public opinion. Many people wish they had this quality, but a "wish-bone" can never take the place of a backbone. The service of God is for the brave and the bold; any fool can serve the devil.

 

John 2:13-25

The blog below is not written recently. I am posting it now only after I have talked with family. The family and friends of the soldiers mentioned have been properly notified. Security prevents me from giving details about where, when, what, etc, etc. I want to share it from a very personal perspective. Sometimes the reality of where I am eludes me. I needed to capture it that night

Just Like That…

Everything is different over here tonight. Our base was hit with several incoming rounds. We may have lost men; some were severely wounded. We were thrown into chaos in an instant. Just like that…everything changed.

We heard the loud speaker announce the normal test fire. It is always incredible to hear those big guns role out a couple hundred rounds a second. Amazing.

Right after that…minutes later, we heard another sound from the loud speaker; it was an alarm. We were being attacked. We have an early warning system that gives us a few seconds reaction time. I got the door open to listen and it hit. It was very close. It sounded like we took two on our pad. I was the first one in the bunker. Others followed. 6 of us huddled under one of the bunkers; waiting.

We are miles from the enemy. There is no scrabbling for weapons and gear. There is little we can do but sit and wait it out. Most of us were dressed in shorts. Several were casually talking, smoking and joking. For me and others it is our first. We have a healthy mix of guys in the company who were here when this was the norm. It was good to have them around tonight.

The "All Clear" command over the loud speaker seemed silly "after" rounds had hit so close to us. Alpha Co was having formation on the Basketball court behind my trailer (CHU). My company was gathering at another building.

One of the rounds hit a T-Wall right down the row from me. It was too close. I felt the shock from it and heard rocks and debris landing on top of my trailer. The 12 inch thick T-Wall did a good job stopping the 107mm rocket. Parts of the round were lying on the ground. I had no idea they would be that big. It took a decent chunk out of that t-wall.

The second one hit directly on the back corner of a CHU. It was one row over from mine, and still way to close for comfort. I did not go in but was told they pulled bodies out. One KIA and others rushed to the TMC. I'm sure we'll find out more in the morning. Two guys in my company helped provide first aid to the most serious casualties. Their trailers were next door. One of our guys helped with a manual breathing apparatus on an individual. He was covered in blood.

I'm finding myself writing tonight with a sense of just needing to get it all down, get it out. My imagination is running wild. Resting this evening has not been easy. My security has been shaken. My vulnerability exposed.

As I type this I can hear soldiers playing Volleyball 100 yards from where a soldier died this evening.

It is 1:00 am…and they are playing Volleyball…in a war zone.

Anywhere else in the world and we'd have them all loaded up to get their heads checked. Here it is another way not to think about what just happened.