Article April 28, 2003 Issue

Praying from a higher vantage point

By Bob Miller

Working in Washington, D.C., keeps me close to a lot of social and political events. In that context, I attended a couple of events that grabbed my emotions and made me do some deep thinking. The first was a conference in November 2002 in San Diego, where I was invited to a celebration of The Marine Corps' birthday. This is a major celebration of the founding of the United States Marine Corps.

As part of this event, I was asked to acquire Marine escorts for 300 women legislators for the formal part of the ceremony. Consequently, I got to meet over 100 of these Marines personally. Although this was their birthday celebration, the young Marines were being asked to accommodate the rest of us guests. And to these mostly under-20-year-old Marines, having to escort 300 legislators to the formal part of their ceremony was a bit of a surprise. Along with suddenly becoming escorts, they also had to give up their seats to the women at the ceremony. I'm happy to say that both the Marines and the legislators rose to the task. I was especially proud of the grace these young Marines exhibited at what was probably the very first Marine birthday for most of them. Their response was immediate, generous, and honorable. Not one refused.

During the evening, I learned from speaking with these men that they felt confident they had been well trained, militarily. But mentally, they were all struggling with the knowledge they were going to be shipped out to war in just a few days. Feeling their struggle, I unexpectedly became very emotional. I wanted to do something for them—at the very least to pray for their safety. But my emotions welled up in me, making me feel that my prayers were inadequate to provide the support these young people would need for what lay ahead.