Lifeguards

It’s official, Katy finished the Army Ten Miler in 93 minutes! That’s an excellent time, much less for her first ten-mile race. I won’t steal her thunder, I’m sure she has lots to write about when she gets a chance to post about it; and I only got to talk to her for literally three minutes today before we lost contact and I couldn’t make another call today. So I hope to find out tomorrow about the race experience – the sights, the people, the emotions. Now they’re doing the tourist thing and seeing the sights in D.C.

Here in Iraq, many ran the race too. I however did not. Because of the heat, the race began at 0530. Runners had to be there at 0500, and that meant getting up around 0400. That’s not fun to me…ever. Sleep is fun. I like sleep. That’s what I did at 0400 this morning….sweet sleep.

Tonight a friend from work came to church with me. She normally goes to the gospel service at noon, but she wanted to experience our service too. She’s been inviting us one by one to go to her service too, and next week is my turn to go. I’m really touched she came. She went the extra mile and worshiping tonight and having communion too with her made for a special service indeed. After church, I rushed to meet a buddy at the gym and we worked out and then trotted to the DFAC for some prison meat. He had already eaten so he took my Bible while I was going through the line and when I returned to the table I found him engrossed in it. He’s a believer but also has a great deal of questions. As I saw him from a distance reading my Bible, I quickly prayed for wisdom as I sat down.

He asked very humbly but bluntly that if God is all knowing and knew before creating the world that man would screw it up, then isn’t God egotistical for even creating us to begin with to put man through all of that when He knew how we’d behave. He asked more deeply, “Isn’t it egotistical of God to have pre-conditions for us to have a relationship with Him? If I don’t accept Him, then I’m bound for Hell?” I thought for a moment and chewed my prison meat before responding with, “If God is love, as Scripture says, than a loving God would not create anything without free will.” I then borrowed a great line from the Veggie Tales…”Love that is demanded is not love at all.” “So with free will to love or to reject, God made us. Now who severed that relationship, God or man?” “Man,” he responded. “Right. And who repaired that relationship? God or man?”. Again, “Man” was the response. Then I said, “If you were drowning and needed a lifeguard and one swam up to you, you’d have to do what the lifeguard says to be rescued. You don’t have to, you just couldn’t be rescued if you didn’t. The lifeguard came to save you, not save himself. Now if him telling you to quit struggling and accept his help and follow his instructions is a pre-condition, then so be it, but God didn’t have to send the Lifeguard to save us.” He smiled and chuckled. It was like a light bulb came on and suddenly He saw grace in a different, less legalistic way. It opened the door for a long conversation and two friends became closer over the Word and some prison meat called chicken nuggets.

One thing I treasure about deployment are moments like church and dinner tonight. Back in the USA and in the civilian world, you can be one person Sunday morning, another at home, and another at work. But here you eat, sleep, work, and worship with all the same people. There’s no hiding who you are and what you are. So it’s rewarding to have two friends to worship with tonight that I will work alongside tomorrow. Only our Lifeguard could make chemistry possible.

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