Jane Cook - Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

Lord, help us focus our attention on others and the mission you have for us. Amen.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25)

Peace amidst turmoil comes from faith. If you don’t rely on God or have faith in his sovereignty, then it’s all up to you, and that is absolutely fatiguing. You have to figure it all out and lean on your own understanding. Your hands will fail at the critical moment, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You have very real physical and mental limitations. Simply put, without faith you will fail. Faith allows you to persevere. You will continue to do what you must do, knowing that God is the one in control of what happens.

During that incident outside of Kandahar, I felt like I was completely alone. But I wasn’t ever alone. Even the people who trained me contributed to that success. The men who were not trained medically but were performing medical tasks because I was yelling instruction at them contributed directly to saving lives. There was a lot of noise and a great deal of chaos. But through it all there was an underlying peace that is difficult to explain.

I have been on a few assaults that have lasted many hours. Those situations, just as the tragedy of December 5, simply call for persistence, all the way to the end. You can’t just stop when you meet resistance. Persistence requires faith.

If we found ourselves assaulting a well-defended position, we would use what we had to reduce the target and reduce the threat. Fortunately, we have a lot of combined arms technology, which we can leverage to our advantage. At the end of the day somebody has to go on and occupy the ground. It’s not until you’re there that you can say the enemy no longer owns the objective. To move forward through the barriers and instinct to stop requires more than human initiative can accomplish. And through those times of conflict and struggle in your life, peace is still present if you believe.

Lord, help my unbelief. Help me to move forward through the barriers of life. Help me not to trust my human strength but depend solely upon your strength.

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

Understanding the commander’s intent is very important to success on the battlefield. In life, we have our Commander’s intent laid out in the Bible. Unfortunately, we are focused on ourselves and have moved away from the commander’s intent: to have the free will to glorify him instead of ourselves.

The great military thinker and strategic theorist, Clausewitz said that “war is the domain of friction and violence.” Not only war, but also the fabric of our life exists in friction. In your daily life, you are in a war of expectations and trials. We talk about periods of peace but there’s never a true world peace. When one area of sovereignty bumps up against another it creates friction. It’s true at the international level and the individual level.

We have friction because we have free will. If you put free will into the military context it doesn’t work well. Everybody cannot make up their minds about whether or not they shoot back at the enemy or engage in combat. We have to bury the idea of free will to have the unity required to accomplish the commander’s intent and survive as a unit.

The winning strategy lies in applying our force and resources in a coordinated way to accomplish the bigger mission. It involves having our free will inline with the commander’s will and committing to the success of the team above our own glory or survival. Don’t lose yourself, your ethics or your honor by losing sight of the commander’s intent. It wasn’t a part of God’s intent for you to focus on yourself or become self-reliant. Success is measured by your commitment to each other and your commitment to the commander’s intent.

Truly we have a war without end now. And it’s an issue of conflicting ideologies. The fight we are in is a big one. So all the little things matter, like how you prepare, how you pray, and how you conduct yourself. Understanding the creator’s intent is the key to your success. He intended for you to have peace regardless of what is happening to you or around you in this world and he wanted you to not only have life, but also to live it more abundantly.

Prepare us, Lord, for spiritual warfare. Embolden us. While we are in battle, grant us the peace that passes understanding. Amen

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Forrest and Oaken Ewens, identical twins, were students in my discussion group at Whitworth University in fall 2000. When I asked them if they really wanted to be in the same group, they were resolute: “We like being in the same classes,” one said. “It’s never been a problem.”

During that semester, one I can’t remember which one consistently turned in better papers than the other. Neither cared about that. There was no one-upmanship. The twins rarely spoke up in class, but their occasional comments and their papers reflected strong convictions, heartfelt beliefs, and love of God, family, and country. Their companionship was easy and supportive; their bond was tight.

Perhaps that bond expanded a bit when Oaken left for West Point and Forrest stayed on at Whitworth, helping to lead the track-and-field team to a conference championship and learning everything he could about history and his other passions. Other tests came as the young men pursued their military careers, first in ROTC, at the U.S. Military Academy, and then in the U.S. Army.

But nothing would break the bond; not even Forrest’s death in Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley on June 16, 2006. He was leading his men on a mission to distribute medical supplies when a roadside bomb went off. At barely twenty-five, Forrest was gone.

Two weeks after his brother’s death, Oaken wrote in an online memorial, “I prayed so hard that God would stop my heart the night I heard.” Saying that he was “beyond tears,” Oaken continued, “I miss you and I am so very proud.”

Everyone who knew Forrest echoes that last sentiment. Though none of us can know the depth of his twin’s anguish, nor the pain and pride of the rest of his close-knit family, all of us can join with another young man who wrote in Forrest’s guestbook a PFC who’d served under Forrest in Afghanistan. His final words were both an inspiration and a knife through the heart to those of us who went to the Web looking for comfort and camaraderie after Forrest’s death: “Climb to Glory, Sir!”

Lord, may your glory be seen even in suffering.

“A brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17)

The Thanksgiving holiday was an opportunity to take time out to give thanks for all the blessings of my past, the present, and the ones to come. We had a memorial ceremony for the Marines who were killed in Operation Steel Curtain. I can’t think of a better day to celebrate the lives of these young men, and give thanks for their courage and sacrifice. The sun shining, tears running behind sunglasses, and undoubtedly, God was present. Profound and sincere words were shared: life is precious a gift and one’s spirit touches so many in such a short amount of time.