276 A Watch and a Prayer
"Soldier, why did you not follow my orders immediately?" Commander Vargas glared at his subordinate with enough intensity that could bore a hole through the back of his head.
Commander Vargas was speaking privately to the soldier. It was a few hours after a pitched battle in the trenches. Commander Vargas had ordered the soldier to go out and save fellow soldiers wounded in the battlefield. However, the soldier looked at his watch pensively then ducked back into a trench.
Commander Vargas, shocked at the soldier's insubordination, shouted the order again. The soldier nodded his head in affirmation, but looked at his watch, then ducked back into the trench.
Exasperated, Commander Vargas barked out his order a third day at the soldier, along with an assortment of colorful profanities. The soldier looked at his watch for a moment, then suddenly burst out onto the field. The soldier braved enemy fire and saved many men, carrying or dragging them back to the safety of the trenches.
The soldier paused, then looked sheepishly at the ground. "Well, sir," the soldier began, "I am not proud to admit this. I don't believe in God, but just before I left home, my mother gave me a Bible. In it, was a piece paper where she wrote the passages she wanted me to read, as well as the hours she would be praying for me. I was waiting for one of those hours to strike. As long as my mother was praying for me, no matter what happened next, I was willing to face it."
If a big and strapping soldier armed to the teeth was more willing to trust in prayer than his own weapons, how much more should we rely on prayer?
- Recommended reading: Psalms 50:15; Isaiah 41:10; Philippians 4:6-7
