CPTnet
August, 28, 2004
IRAQ REFLECTION: Bodyguards
by Mabel V. Brunk
When we entered Scania, a U.S.military base near Baghdad, a soldier stopped
Peggy Gish, me and two Iraqis at a security checkpoint. "Are they your
bodyguards?" a U. S. soldier asked concerning the two Iraqis. Our
translator promptly said, "God is our bodyguard." We were already exiting
the checkpoint and didn't pause to note the soldier's reaction.
I pondered. "Bodyguard." Whom do we need protection from? We have a
choice: to look on all persons around us as potential enemies, intent on
harming us, or to see others as our brothers and sisters, made in the image
of God, waiting to be our friends.
"Bodyguard." What gives us protection? We have a choice: to think of
protection as referring chiefly to our physical self, our bodies, or to
remember that we are also spirit and soul, mind and will, and our well-being
includes the safe-guarding of our whole being.
The soldier was no doubt seeing a bodyguard as one able to protect us from
physical harm or kidnapping. He no doubt felt his protection came from his
helmet, gun, flak jacket, from the cement barricades and razor wire fences
around the base.
Choosing God as our bodyguard changes our inner selves and enables us to see
others as our brothers and sisters and reminds us that God offers protection
for our whole being.
Our translator and other Iraqis do not see their ultimate protection as the
military force the U. S. soldier was envisioning. Their better choice is to
trust God, resonating with the Psalmist: "In Him I trust and I will not be
afraid. What can a mere human being do to me?" (Psalms 56:11)
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