The Arctic Is Neutral
George Hurley, the young sailor-poet, wrote of his despair at the death that he witnessed:
No life boat for me, I die where I stand / Like an icicle, shiny and grand
The arctic is neutral, it takes no side / All dressed in white, waiting for its bride.
So much suffering, so many dying / So many shipmates died just for trying
All of their labor, all of the toil / all of the bodies covered with oil.116
In combat I have experienced my own despair in the midst of violence and death. I was unfortunately not a Christian at that time. I anguished at the apparent randomness that took some and not others, and felt that God could not be involved in any of what I was seeing on a daily basis. I am not qualified even now to comment on God’s attitude toward war or those involved in the fighting. There have obviously been good men and women on all sides in every war praying fervently for deliverance. Many believe that their prayers were answered. What about those whose prayers were not answered?
There is no definitive answer to such a question. We don’t know the spiritual condition of those who have fallen, and we don’t know God’s plan for their eternal futures. We do know that everyone must die eventually and that the span of our lives, whether twenty-five years or eighty-five, is nothing from God’s perspective. God never promised to shield us from hardship or harm. He only promises to be with us in every situation, if we faithfully turn to him. We also have the same dilemma as the apostle Paul, not knowing who gets the better deal: the person called to heaven or the person left to face the challenges of this world.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain… I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
—Philippians 1:21, 23 24