The United States military leadership in Iraq had a responsibility to provide spiritual and ethical encouragement to the American military force and its leadership, who were making indescribable decisions. This proved delicate because America was leading a large coalition of religiously diverse nations and assisting a new government in Iraq, where religion influenced the conflict.
“We have to be true to our religious integrity as Americans. We are not a non-religious nation. Just because we don’t want to offend anybody doesn’t mean we need to reduce ourselves to no belief. That was one of the challenges,” Multinational Force-Iraq Command Chaplain, Colonel Mike Hoyt explained of the discussions he had with the commanding general’s chief of staff about how to approach the word from the chaplain at meetings such as the Battle Update Assessment or BUA.
They concluded that a weekly prayer was an appropriate measure of encouragement at these meetings. The prayer had to be as inclusive as possible. It couldn’t tick anybody off and had to also encourage our Iraqi and coalition audience from a variety of faiths or no faith. However, because prayer is a method all faiths share, these simple BUA prayers proved a welcomed path for encouraging the war weary hearts of people.
Here’s Hoyt’s BUA prayer from Nov. 19, 2006: “We thank You this day Lord, for leaving the windows of heaven open to us through the gift of prayer. We confess to You our world’s experience sometimes dwarfs our awareness of You and things appear insurmountable.
“But You have set eternity in our heart and planted wisdom in our innermost being and given understanding to the mind.
“We pray for insight into the illusive goals of peace so we may cease the perplexities of war. We pray for a graceful approach with each other so we may practice the lessons of love. We pray for Your enduring mercy and comfort so our wounded may be relieved from the suffering we cannot touch.
“And we pray to You, the God of our Universe, so our vision will exceed the horizon of the here and now and our heart will, in purpose and in faith, be lifted to hope in You. Keep us in prayer this week so we may hear Your voice of triumph in the tasks before us each day. Amen.”
Thank you for prayer and its power to encourage and keep us from losing heart.
“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray, and to not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1)