You're probably familiar with John 15:13, which says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." I saw an example of that firsthand recently, in a memorial to World War II soldiers in Normandy, France—which I discussed with Stuart Shepard recently on the CitizenLink Report. It was in the stained-glass window of a church near the scene of some particularly bloody battles, where scores of Americans died while trying to liberate the French people from the occupying German army. Two U.S. medics had set up an aid station inside the church, but when it was captured by German soldiers, they asked if the medics would work on Germans as well. The Americans said they'd work on anybody, as long as everyone left their weapons at the door. This impressed two German snipers, who were watching, unnoticed, from their hidden position in the church's belfry. Shortly afterward, the town was recaptured by the Allied forces—and the snipers, whose perspective of the enemy had been changed, peacefully surrendered. Just before the Battle of the Bulge, as Allied forces found themselves surrounded by the enemy and hounded by freezing rain that kept reinforcements from reaching them in the Ardennes Forest, Gen. George Patton asked his chief chaplain to write a prayer for good weather. Patton then used it as a training letter for 3,000 officers, asking them to instruct all their enlisted men to pray. "Those who pray do more for the world than those who fight," the letter said. "We must urge, instruct and indoctrinate every fighting man to pray as well as fight. In Gideon's day and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories." A week after the prayers began, the troops received an answer: The rain ceased, relief came and the Nazi advance was crushed. The letter of 1944 shows us that with all the battles we have to fight, and all the means that have been given to us with which to fight them, our most effective weapon is always prayer. The One who calls His people to be overcomers holds all victories in His hands, and is able to do "immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine." For faith and family,  Tom Minnery Senior Vice President, Government & Public Policy |
