It is so easy to become too comfortable or at least used to a tough situation. I remember as my first deployment to Iraq was coming to an end and having a bit of anxiety about leaving. I had arrived several months earlier. One day I am with my family at home with all the security and comfort that goes along with it, then 40 hours later to living and working in the “Green Zone” in downtown Baghdad. A few square miles of relative security with the chaos of being under routine mortar attacks while working 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week. Then THE day came. My replacement was settled in, my ticket on the rotator in-hand, said my good-byes and was in the staging area to board a C-130 out of Baghdad International Airport, with stops in Kuwait, Germany, Baltimore, Dallas, and then finally home. But in the days leading up, I felt a sense of panic. So many things could cause delays for “getting out of “Dodge.” How hard would it be to get back to normal, and not feeling compelled to “take shelter” every time I heard a siren or loud noise. Ironically, one of my biggest “fears” was leaving what had become normal. You quickly adapt to a new normal in order to cope. But with my departure, that normal was going to be shattered; even though that normal was trying, tiring, with a longing to be home.
The Israelites had spent generations as slaves to the Egyptians. Through Moses, God said it was time for them to leave. Not easy undertaking by any stretch, as their departure wasn’t really what Pharoah wanted. The Israelites saw Pharoah’s Army bearing down on them. Their first reaction was to cry out to Moses and chastise him for delivering them slavery to freedom, because it was better to “serve the Egyptians then to die in the desert.” It doesn’t seem rational and certainly a complete lacking of faith in God. Moses had to remind them not to be afraid, and that the Lord would fight for them, which of course he did.
In that moment of early 2005, as much as I was wanting to get home, I had to overcome my panic of leaving what was not a good situation. Of course, the moment I set eyes on Jennifer and the boys when I walked through the baggage claim at the airport, I realized how irrational that panic was. Christian, don’t panic. As Paul wrote in Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”