Pray That God Will Make Me Adequate

A young chaplain named Clark Poling wrote his to his father, “I know I shall have your prayers, but please don’t pray simply that God will keep me safe. War is dangerous business. Pray that God will make me adequate!”
As he wrote those words, the young RCA (Reformed Church in America) pastor and Army chaplain was being deployed with his unit. Aboard the ship, Clark became friends with fellow first lieutenant chaplains George Fox, a Methodist; Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Roman Catholic Father John Washington. The four found themselves in a fruitful ministry aboard the transport ship Dorchester, serving the spiritual needs of American soldiers headed to the uncertainties of a violent battlefield.
On February 3, 1943, the Dorchester was torpedoed, and rapidly began to sink. Clark Poling and his three fellow chaplains assisted in the evacuation of the ship, calmed the fearful, and guided the wounded to safety. Even with life jackets, the chances of survival were small in the frigid water. But without life jackets the chances of survival were zero. The four chaplains gave their own life vests to others, remaining behind until the ship sank below the surface. One survivor recalled what he saw from the water:
“The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets.”
Of the 940 men aboard the Dorchester, only 230 survived. Many of those who did, at least four perhaps, owed their lives to four clergymen who were found to be adequate for the task.
The Iraqi theater of operations is not exactly Normandy. In five years (+) of fighting, there have been less than one third the casualties of the Battle of the Bulge. The heroes of this war are those who went in early on, and have made it a safer place. Nonetheless, there are still people there who live only to see another American soldier die, so it is not exactly a safe place. Just safer.
As you pray for me and the soldiers of the 779th Engineer Battalion, I ask you to go back to the top and read Chaplain Poling’s request to his father. Pray that God will make me adequate.