Article June 8, 1946 Issue

Prayer versus Complaining

RALPH R. BAILEY

One winter on the western front an artillery crew was preparing for trial shots. The test was essential because its results would determine what corrections were necessary for accurate field artillery fire from the gun in that given position. But weather conditions were such that the observer could not see the target, and the test could not be made. Giving way to a sense of frustration at a moment when there was need for effective action, the gun sergeant said bitterly, "I'll bet the enemy prayed all night for this weather!"

"In that case," a near-by officer quietly responded, "they got what they prayed for. Perhaps we had better pray more, and complain less."

As chaplain of that outfit, I naturally was interested in the extent to which members of the crew put their officer's recommendation into practice. Months later one of the men told me that he had earnestly tried to convert his "complaining hours"—wakeful nights when he was too cold to sleep, weary intervals in his gun pit while waiting for orders to fire, tense moments when nothing went right, or long stretches on the road when he had march orders—into periods of prayer. And it was to those silent attempts to glorify God in his thinking that he gave credit for greatly increased personal happiness, efficiency, and well-being, as well as for many instances of protection in combat.

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