I have often be asked the question, "What was it like when you were in Iraq?" The normal response....... "Very Hot!" This usually gets an "I bet!" response and the conversation changes. Honestly I haven't talked a whole lot about my time in Iraq with friends and family, I usually just answer their questions and change the subject. But the further I get from that time, the more I actually see what God did for me there. I thought I would share 5 things that God showed me in my brief year in the distant land.
1. God showed me that the United States isn't reality. We live in a box of a world here in the U.S. and just assume everyone else in the world lives like we do. This couldn't be any further from the truth. The majority of the world is far less fortunate (materialistic speaking). But while they are less established economically, I learned they are often much more in tact with reality.
2. God took everything away. I was blessed to have everything (family, friends, freedom etc..) stripped away for a year. I say "blessed" because very few people are able to experience this dependence upon God unless they have reached the very bottom of life. I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of this life, and God showed me that dependence upon people will always fail, but total dependence upon Him has a 100% success rate.
3. God gave me a year to fall in love with my wife. Very few couples spend the first year of their engagement apart from each other. Normally a man and woman spend the majority of this time dating, getting to know each other face to face, and talking on a daily basis. God gave Mary and I time to learn about each other through email, letters, and an occasional phone call. While I will admit, that modern technology allowed Mary and I to stay touch quite often, our dating life consisted of letters and emails. It was a great opportunity to fall in love with my wife while being thousands of miles away.
4. The sovereignty of God became much more relevant. As you can imagine, not knowing what lied around every corner, not knowing if the car that was passing you was a car bomb, or not knowing if the sporadic gun fire was being directed at you......... it could have been very stressful. But I knew that God had mapped out every turn before I took it. I knew that if a bullet was going to find it's way to me, it would only do so because it was ordained by God. This thought gave me an uncanny sense of comfort.
5. God showed me that He is God everywhere. To my surprise, there were two or three Christian churches in our "zone" in Baghdad. On a few different occasions, I had the opportunity to talk with these brothers and sisters in Christ (via an interpreter). I will never forget speaking to a young man only minutes after their church was hit by a car bomb. He told me that the only thing that would keep him from walking to church on a Sunday morning would be the day that he didn't have to walk because he would be face to face with God himself. This man's faith still speaks to me today.
God is just as big in Iraq as He is in Magnolia, AR.
-bob
