When You Can't Do Anything To Help...

As I do most mornings, I logged onto social media and saw a post from a friend.

It was horrifying.

I met my friend in the winter of 1985. Since then, he has gone on to do amazing things. He's served in the U.S. military and was stationed in Afghanistan years ago. Since he and I are not too close--he lives in the midwest and I haven't seen him in decades--I only see what he posts on social media. In following his posts for years, I knew he had worked with several translators in Afghanistan. Today he posted a note he received from one.

And since he hasn't posted an update, I wonder if my friend's friend has been killed.

I read the post sitting in my home office. My family still slept as the sun rose above the mountains to the east. I was relatively safe. No one was invading my town, or worse yet, at my front door prepared to kill me and my family. What makes things even more horrible is my friend is waiting to hear from his friends to see if they are even alive or not--all he can do is wait.

I don't claim to have any answers. I don't know the politics, the issues, the pros and cons. But I do know, if I were on my computer one morning and friends from across the globe were telling me they and their loved ones were about to be overrun and may not survive, it would be devastating...the uselessness of it all.

I pray for my friend, and for his friends.