“The world is scary as hell. Love anyway.”
(Jeremy Courtney)

–

Those words were penned by Jeremy Courtney, an American living with his wife and two children in northern Iraq. He and his wife are also my new friends, as we all got to spend time together in Dubai last week.

A number of you expressed your support and offered your prayers for my trip to the Middle East, and I thank you for your encouragement. I have now returned, and awakened from my jet-lagged fog, and all I can think about is the courage of the Courtney family.

This is a native Texan couple that lives merely a few zip codes away from ISIS territory. Their work is to bridge relationships between Christians and Muslims, as well as connect Iraqi children to vital medical care, and organize financing for Iraqis to start their own businesses. Their two children have lived in the ME their whole lives, and consider it their home. As you can read in Jeremy’s Washington Post article HERE, they have not been immune from danger. In fact, in many ways, they have been on the “front lines” as much as many military personnel I’ve been privileged to know over the last several years.

But for the Courtneys, waging this kind of peace between peoples is the best way they know how to find peace within themselves. Saying no to this calling of what they call “Pre-emptive Love” would leave them at war within their own hearts. And peace on earth cannot happen without peace of heart.

I ask you to consider Jeremy and his family, and their example, during this season of hope. Buy his book here. Support their work here.

Have they asked me to ask this of you? No. Their advice to us?

Go to your local Mosque, and extend a hand of friendship. If you’re a Muslim, go to your local church or synagogue and do the same. This is scary for most of us, yes.

But true love always is.
Peace,
Hal