The 12 Days of Resilience with COL Nick Rowe: Day 5 Religion and Faith

We’re here at the fifth day of Christmas, excitedly awaiting the arrival of our five golden rings from our love—at least according to the 18th century Christmas carol. While we wait, we have our own “Twelve Days of Christmas” in progress, only with the tact of better understanding the constant barrage our minds are under from the media and practically every other institution in our nation. “The Twelve Days of Resilience” features COL James N. “Nick” Rowe in an interview he gave on what got him through five years as a prisoner of war at the hands of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Then-Lieutenant Rowe was a Texan, a West Point graduate, and a Green Beret. He came from a loving family, a supportive community, and a church that provided him with a solid Christian foundation. These things built his identity. When he entered the prisoner of war camps, every facet of that identity would be taken from him.

He’d be kept at near-starvation level, covered in skin aliments with little if any access to medication. He’d see fellow Americans come and go and die. He’d be kept in isolation; he’d be tortured; he’d live in fear of anticipated torture, a twisted self-induced cruelty precipitated by truly evil captors that knew how to apply only the amount of abuse needed to get what they wanted. Similarly, he’d live by the carrot-and-stick routine of being promised release, only to have it ripped away in the end. Cruelest of all in his mind was having to kill two adopted forest eagles he had raised to save them from torment by the guards who clipped one of the bird’s wings. Many things worked together to free COL Rowe, but he knew it was his faith that gave him the strength to withstand such treatment.

The Viet Cong used ritual and dogma in their political system, so they came down hard on religion. Religion threatens any ritual-and-dogma system because it offers true freedom of heart, mind, and soul. COL Rowe quickly discovered that you couldn’t make deals with God, but could only ask Him to show you want He wanted you to do and to give you the strength to do it. The goal remained to be true to yourself and God while under constant pressure to abandon both and be disloyal to your country. Prayer reminded him that he wasn’t alone and that he had a communication system with God that could alleviate the isolation. He found that his faith dovetailed well the Code of Conduct, especially when discerning right from wrong in a hostile environment in which your life was incessantly threatened. After a while, he remembered three bible passages he’d learned at church.

COL Rowe relied most on the 23rd and 91st Psalms and the Book of Job. Almost everyone is familiar with the 23rd Psalm, but most notable for COL Rowe’s real-world nightmare is Verse 4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Another passage from this popular Psalm includes verses 1-3: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” The whole psalm is one of comfort, and a perfect one to offer balm to such a nightmarish scenario. The key is to know the bible well enough to be able to recall passages when you need them. I’m not a big fan of taking single versus out of context or opening your bible randomly as if you were conjuring up your daily fortune, but even the repetition of a single passage could be enough to get you through the next day. Even COL Rowe said it could be a crutch, but it works.

Psalm 91 is focused more on hope. Each person will have a part they like the best, and COL Rowe doesn’t mention which verses are his favorites in this passage, but Verse 4 gives hope: “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wing you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.” Verses 5-8 also provide balm for worried minds. “You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A Thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes, And see the recompense of the wicked.” And verses 10-12 provide a feeling of being protected: “No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways, They will bear you up on their hands, Lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

The Book of Job can be frustrating to read about, but essentially Job is protected and blessed by God because he is an upright man who turns from sinning. Satan finds this an unfair advantage, so he convinces God to let him at Job. God, with great confidence in Job, agrees, provided Satan not take his life. First, Job’s children are killed. As crushed as he is, Job doesn’t curse God, only declares that God gives and God takes away. Meanwhile, throughout the story, Job’s three friends are convinced that Job must have sinned to have caused his downturn in fortune. With friends like these, who needs enemies. Satan then attacks Job’s health. Friends are still not in his corner.  His wife essentially gets so frustrated, she says he’d be better off dead. Sheesh! In the end Job loses everything, and still he doesn’t curse God. In his despair he does question his existence, but he doesn’t blame God. Finally, finally, God reverses Job’s condition, only he blesses him above and beyond what he had lost. COL Rowe could certainly find similarities in this book as a prisoner of war covered in fungus infections and sores, striped of his identity, away from home and family. He explained how he learned to let go of self-pity. And to the question of “Why me?” he found the only answer was “Why not?” There is no answer to, “Why him?” It just was the case, and one of the reasons why he survived was his faith.

Tomorrow Day 6 of the “Twelve Days of Resilience” will cover personal coping.

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