Prayer and Sacrifice
Mary Alice Pinney was twelve years old when the Second World War began. She vividly recalled President Roosevelt’s radio address declaring that December 7th would forever be “a date that will live in infamy.” Her most vivid recollection of the war was the united effort that she saw on the home front:
One of the most important things I have ever seen in the world it was something I saw then that I haven’t seen in any war since. Any church, any synagogue, any place that held any religious practice, what-so-ever, sent prayers, and I mean, everywhere for the people fighting in the war. And it never stopped until long after the war. I have never seen any kind of support the way our town supported the troops in World War II. The home front sent food, supplies, and clothes, anything we had on hand to help them. We were rationed painfully, it didn’t matter how rich or poor you were, everyone was sharing in the loss.310
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis masterfully presents letters from a senior devil to his younger nephew instructing him on the fine points of winning humans away from the “Enemy” (God). He had some startling insights about why war might not be as good for the devil’s cause as might be expected:
I must warn you not to hope too much from a war. Of course war is entertaining. The immediate fear and suffering of the humans is a legitimate and pleasing refreshment for our myriads of toiling workers. We may hope for a good deal of cruelty and unchastity. But, if we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy, while tens of thousands who do not go so far as that will nevertheless have their attention diverted from themselves to values and causes which they believe to be higher than the self.311
Mary Alice Pinney has illuminated C. S. Lewis’ point. During the trials of wartime, many Americans did come closer to God and to each other through mutual prayer and sacrifice. Fortunately, war isn’t necessary to bring us to this condition. Whenever we put our individual concerns aside in support of a worthy goal, we have the potential of drawing closer to others and to God.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
—Philippians 3:8