PRESSURE, n. the action of a force against an opposing force
(Definitions taken from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

This week, I'm going to propose that two seemingly unrelated events, can be tied together and that we can learn from them.

Last week we talked about how growing up is not easy, we have to make difficult choices, but it is worth it.

The difference between diamonds, graphite, and charcoal has to do with the pressure and heat carbon molecules sustain, and the resulting structure of its crystalline structure.

Of course, the greater the pressure, the stronger the bonds, the closer we get to the irreversible diamond. It's thermodynamics in reverse... from chaos, irreversible order.

Military casualties for this ally were in the 7 million range. American casualties are estimated at 300,000.

There are things worth fighting for, things worth dying for. Fighting the evils of Nazism, in retrospect, is obviously a good reason. The freedom of the people living in nations such as Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France, should be a good reason.

At the time, many people in the United States did not believe we should go "over there" to fight somebody else's war.

In the end, though, today, we realize that the world is a much better place because we did.

It is a unique war, though, because there is no clear country, government, army, we are fighting.

We are fighting ideology, and for some reason (I hope there was a reason...), those in the know decided that if they had to pick a location to take the offensive to, it might as well be Iraq.

And that leads me to the leap.

Sometimes we find ourselves having to make choices that don't seem logical.

We make choices with only some of the needed information, or with mis-information.

But, finally, we find ourselves having to make a choice, in spite of seemingly absurd lack of clarity and direction, because NOT making a choice might put us in even worse circumstances.

And, actually, there may be times when waiting, postponing, delaying, may be the better option. These are also decisions we must make.

We seek wisdom from around us, from the evidence we are able to gather, and we seek wisdom from above, from the supernatural Director who can see the end from the beginning.

And we may still miss it.

But if we hit the mark... our children, our children's children, will be better off. And if not for our children, then for the children of our allies, who may one day invite us to celebrate alongside them, the victory we helped them win.

It's usually the difficult and costly choices the produce the most lasting reward.