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It seems every time I drive from point A to point B these days, I see more "ribbon decals" on cars, bearing the words "Remember our troops." Yet despite these widespread reminders, and despite the high profile of the war in Iraq during the presidential election just completed, I fear we are becoming inured to its events and are forgetful of its combatants. As war drags on and each day more distant, sterile statistics trickle in through the media, are we really keeping our troops in Iraq and elsewhere in our thoughts and prayers?

Nov. 11 provides one opportunity—one "nudge" to rededicate ourselves to pray in this direction.

In 1926 Congress instituted "Armistice Day," to be observed each Nov. 11 as a commemoration of the armistice that ended "the Great War" (World War I) and a day to both thank God for the sacrifice of those who fought and pray for world peace. Then in 1954, after World War II and the Korean conflict, the day was refocused to honor the service and sacrifice of the American veterans of all wars. As we remember the veterans, I believe it is appropriate to include those who currently serve in our thoughts and prayers as well.

There are of course as many ways to lift up our troops as there are soldiers. But I want to suggest one appropriate way for Christians to pray for our troops abroad this year. It has to do with God's mysterious purposes in the most terrible of conflicts.

As C. S. Lewis's fictional junior demon "Screwtape" so famously discovered, though war is clearly an instrument of hell, yet God can and does turn it to the purposes of heaven. Lewis's colleague J. R. R. Tolkien put it like this: "All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labours with vast power and perpetual success—in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in."

More specifically, history gives us reason to believe that the circumstances of wartime military service can prepare a particular sort of "soil for unexpected good": that is, a fertile ground for the Gospel in the hearts of those who serve.

I suggest that each of us read the following account of a powerful move of God among the troops of a bygone conflict, and that we take this precedent to heart and allow it to guide our own prayers.

Here, then, as a sort of prayer aid, is Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr.'s article on the "camp revivals" among the soldiers fighting on both sides of the American Civil War, first printed in Christian History & Biography's Issue 33: Christianity and the Civil War. I hope that reading it will bless you as it has blessed me, and that it will help direct your prayers for our men and women in harm's way:

Early in 1862, chaplain James Marks pondered how to help the soldiers of the 63rd Pennsylvania Regiment. Bitterness after the defeat at Bull Run gripped the army. Homesickness and boredom were rife, and cold, wet weather depressed generals and privates alike. Marks made up his mind to lift the soldiers out of their unhappiness and bring their thoughts to a higher, religious plane. Purchasing a tent to hold worshipers, he began a revival season that lasted until the spring. Hundreds of men soon were "born again."

In the early stages of the war, revivals like one Marks led were not the rule but the exception. Religion did not seem to have left home with the soldiers.

Day-to-day army life was so boring that men were often tempted to "make some foolishness," as one soldier typified it. Profanity, gambling, drunkenness, sexual licentiousness, and petty thievery confronted those who wanted to practice their faith. Christians complained that no Sabbath was observed; despite the efforts of a few generals like George McClellan and Oliver O. Howard, ordinary routines went on as if Sunday meant nothing at all. General Robert McAllister, an officer who was working closely with the United States Christian Commission, complained that a "tide of irreligion" had rolled over his army "like a mighty wave."

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48