We get up and prepare for the day to go according to our plans. We like to eat breakfast at the same time, drive the same roads, park in the same place, go to the same work. We think we're in charge. But then we learn we're not.

We don't know why the astronauts died, but we know that they did. It's like that for most of us this morning. I don't know when I will die, or how, but I know that I will unless Jesus returns first.

For several weeks, The Word Today has focused on promises in God's word for our lives and problems. This week we'll find promises for the hardest places. What does God say to those who face the greatest pain, the gravest tragedy?

This week, let's learn from the masters of Christian spirituality how to pray when times are hard. We begin with one of the most famous prayers for a wartime situation-these words from an unknown Confederate soldier:

We cannot judge the future in the present. The war in Iraq is "very bloody, messy," according to a Dallas Morning News headline this morning. Each day's news brings reports of casualties and loss. But we cannot know tomorrow, today. We can only continue down the path we believe to be just, taking each step in the right direction.

The president told an audience at a Tampa-area military base, "The path we are taking is not easy and it may be long. Yet we know our destination-we will stay on the path, mile by mile, all the way to Baghdad and all the way to victory."

It is so easy to be deceived. Scripture warns: "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). For twelve years Saddam Hussein has lied to the world, refusing to obey the dictates of his earlier surrender, systematically terrorizing his neighbors and his own people.

Watching the war coverage each day will cause our hearts and souls to become bitter, vengeful, and broken unless we do as Jesus says...We will harbor hatred and resentment long after the conflict is over. Our souls will be poisoned with anger toward our enemies. The only way out is to pray for those we are tempted to hate. To ask God to show them the light of his love and truth.

The debate is over, and the war is being fought. Now is not a time for attacking our own troops and leaders, but a time for prayer and support. Our president has enough critics; he needs intercessors.

Today the sun stands directly over the equator, making night and day of equal length in all parts of the earth. This event occurs twice a year: in the spring (thus "vernal" equinox) and in the autumn (around September 22). From this day forward the days will get longer and the nights shorter in the Northern Hemisphere.  Here's the good news: Easter can now occur.