During 2009 in Afghanistan, I was on patrol when our metal detector stopped working. Ever aware of IEDs, team morale suddenly plummeted. My 2IC staunchly announced that he would lead the patrol, and I told everyone to follow me – but a bit further back than normal! As I put each foot forward, I remember praying, ‘This is over to You Lord. Please keep my feet on safe ground.’ We proceeded safely, but not without a few prayers of gratitude!
As we came off the overwatch position, the lead scout was faced with two options to re-join the main track: left or right. He chose the right. As my foot hit the main track, the rest of the company was ambushed just fifty metres away, where we could have been had we gone left. Once again, I saw God’s hand was upon us – and our company. Two RPGs and heavy small arms fire plunged into my colleagues at short range, with no casualties! As my team were outside the ambush, we put heavy ordnance onto the enemy positions and called in attack helicopters, which resolved the conflict in short order!
A few weeks later I was in church with my wife, we were singing Psalm 121. When I came to verse 3, I was overcome with emotion as the reality of the verse struck me, ‘He will not let your foot slip’. I had seen ‘close up’ God’s protection and care.
The reading from 1 Samuel contains a similar sentiment, verse 9 says God ‘will guard the feet of his faithful servants’. Throughout it all I am reminded that it is ‘not by strength that one prevails’ (1 Sam. 2:9). In other words, my safety during what was a frenetic, dangerous tour was not the result of my choices and abilities but because the sovereign will of God who determines the length of my days had decided that my time had not come. Instead, He used the danger of my immediate environment to focus my attention on His Word and keep me in regular ‘comms’ with Him.
*Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/@jahratreza