Faith, Fear and Shelters

"Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away." Dag Hammarskjold

I've been offline for a couple of days, but I'm back on now, and thinking a little bit about the rockets attacks and my own fears. You see, I have realized something while I am here: I'm not that brave. Don't get me wrong- when it comes to roller coasters or things like that, I love thrills and I love to push the limits. But when there are incoming rockets I realize that I'm not really brave. Not that I have wet my pants or starting crying, but I know that I really would rather NOT have rockets coming in. Just a preference. :)

But there is something about fear that is comparable to faith. I came to Iraq not because I'm brave, but because I've been called over here. First, the call has come from Uncle Sam, but even greater is that God has called me to minister to Soldiers. So, I really don't need to be brave, I just need to show up.

Faith works in a similar way. We don't need to "know." We don't need to be fearless or without anxieties. We just need to trust.

I am here in spite of my fears. I simply go to bed at night trusting that I will wake up. If I don't, then I won't need to walk by faith anymore, I'll get to walk by sight, in the presence of Christ.

That's how faith works. Faith doesn't mean we understand everything. Faith doesn't mean we have no doubts. Faith means we worship God in the midst of our confusion and doubts. Just like I'm here in spite of my fears, so my faith moves forward in spite of the feeble nature of my mind and my ability to believe. Faith means allowing God to move in our lives even if we don't see how it's going to happen.

Along with these thoughts, I wanted to address a question in the comments section. My dad asked about shelters. I'll try and answer that without violating any OPSEC issues: Yes, we do have shelters. If I am out walking around and a rocket or mortar comes in, I should make a dash for a shelter. However, if I am indoors, I should hit the floor and stay away from windows. Rockets and mortars pose two general threats: first, there is the actual blast. If a mortar or rocket hits within a certain distance, the blast will kill you. Outside of that, though, is the secondary threat from shrapnel and other debris. Shrapnel can fly a large distance and cause serious or fatal injuries.

So, if I'm in my room and rockets start hitting, the first thing I need to do is get down. If my body armor is close, I will toss it over me. Otherwise I will roll under the bed, or lay down at the base of it. I'm trying to protect myself from the threat of shrapnel coming in and hitting me.

Here is the bottom line: rockets and mortars are scary, but they do not pose a very great threat to our Soldiers. The aim of the insurgents is incredibly poor, and when they shoot them off, we can almost always see where they came from, which is bad for them, and good for us. They are fired off in a desparate way, and while scary, are not usually very effective.