I love living in a military town. The patriotism and support that our city offers to its servicemen and women is astounding. But one thing I don’t love about living in a military town is deployment season. And ‘tis the season for deployments around here.
Thankfully, Peter is now retired and our family doesn’t have to go through the heartache and fear associated with having him leave to fight a war on the other side of the world. But with a large group of soldiers recently leaving from Ft. Campbell, many of my friends are on edge as they said goodbye to dads and husbands. And I can remember so vividly the fear and uncertainty surrounding many of Peter’s deployments.
One deployment in particular will always stand out in my head. Peter was on a 365 deployment, which means he was gone for an entire year. Y’all. Can I just say that a year is a long time to be away from your family?
Because Peter was in the Air Force, we had experienced numerous deployments in the past, but never for as long as a year. This deployment was also different because Peter would be on the ground, working with the army, calling in airstrikes. In the past, Peter had usually been flying safely thousands of feet in the air, dropping bombs on the enemy. This was different. It was hard. And scary.
I remember being extremely fearful for Peter’s safety. Communication wasn’t good – we could email and send messages through Facebook, but talking on the phone or Face-timing was pretty much out of the question. There were many times when weeks would go by and I wouldn’t hear from him, which meant there was a communication blackout.
(For you nonmilitary friends, communication blackout is when the military basically shuts down the internet at a certain location because there are casualties and next of kin need to be notified. Finding out through Facebook that your brother or dad or wife has been killed in Afghanistan is not exactly how it should be done. So instead, the military just shuts it all down until family is notified.)
During those many comm blackouts, I would experience constant anxiety driving home from the mall or from my daughter’s school, hyperventilating as I turned into my neighborhood, afraid that I would see a black military suburban sitting in the driveway, ready to greet me with the worst news of my life.
Does that sound a little dramatic? Well, maybe it was, but I pretty much lived on edge like that for several months. I vividly remember one afternoon, pulling onto my street with such intense anxiety that I began having a panic attack. The fear that military spouses and dependents experience is real.
Not long after that anxiety attack, I was at worship team practice at my church. It had been one of those weeks where I hadn’t heard from Peter. I was wondering if he were dead or alive and I guess I must have looked like a wreck because our worship leader decided to pray over me and for Peter before getting started with practice. He began praying that the Lord would surround Peter’s position with angels of protection. The image in my mind as he prayed was that of large warrior angels encircling Peter, facing outward, holding shields of fire. It was a pretty powerful image – one that I just couldn’t shake.
Later, after I went home, I came across a verse, Psalm 139:5, which says this: “You hem me in behind and before and you lay your hand upon me.”
Isn’t that a remarkable image? It was a reminder to me that God provides protection from all sides and His steady hand is always on us. I loved that verse so much that I began to pray this over Peter constantly.
And actually, I also pray it for my children – I want the Lord to hem them in, protect them, and keep His hand on them at all times.
As for that time of fear at our worship practice? It turns out that Peter had been under heavy fire at that exact moment and by the power of prayer, the Lord protected him from physical harm. God’s angel armies were surrounding Peter and his airmen, protecting them, defending them against unseen principalities.
Prayer works.
And praying Scripture works.
If you find yourself in a situation that is making you fearful, go to the Lord in prayer. Find a scripture that you can pray over your situation. Tell a trusted friend about your fear and ask her to pray for you.
And today, on Memorial Day, take a moment to remember all those fallen soldiers who were not able to come home to their families. Men and women serve our country willingly, but their families are often living with the cost of service. If you know of a family whose spouse or parent is deployed, lift them in prayer. Their very lives may depend on it.