By Elisabeth Hinze
They say that youth is wasted on the young. And I used to agree. Oh, make no mistake about it. I’m still a long ways from retirement. Technically, I hover at the extreme end of the age group that those in the know classify as “the youth”. But that’s a technicality. Because youth, to me, falls somewhere at the end of your teens and the beginning of your twenties. It’s the years of smooth skin, boundless energy and consequence-less junk food eating. It’s also those years that I spent doing, well, everything that a Believer shouldn’t. Some people call it writing your testimony. I like that. What I like even more is God’s promise to restore the years that the locust have eaten (Joel 2:25). And being a faithful God, He did just that.
However, deep down, a tiny part of me clung to the belief that, well, youth is truly wasted on the young. Think about it. All that energy, all those lovely opportunities and all the time on your hands to go for those lovely opportunities. All the countless advantages of youth. Only to be rendered virtually useless by the insecurity, desperation and mistaken belief of infinite wisdom that also comes with youth. See, it just doesn’t add up. All the niceness of youth should come at a time when you are wise enough, mature enough, close enough to God, to appreciate it.
But these days, I’m not so sure anymore. My friend Sarah changed my mind. I wrote about Sarah once before: the Californian beauty who left everything in America behind to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) start a new life here. Why? Because she is Jewish. And this is her home. Even if she had to come home all by herself. Last month we celebrated her 22nd birthday. Yes, she is right smack in the middle of being a youth.
Today Sarah officially joined the Israel Defence Force. My little friend is becoming a soldier. And I am as proud as a beaming mommy. She didn’t have to. At 22 she is past the mandatory age for women. But she wanted to. Insisted on it. Because this is her home. And when your home is under attack, you rise up to defend it.
Sarah joins the ranks of thousands of lone soldiers who share her belief. More than 5 000 lone soldiers currently serve in the IDF. Thousands of young people from all over the world leave their families behind to come protect their promise, their inheritance, their home. They come from America and Argentina, from South Africa and Spain. From different cultures, speaking different languages, living different lives. They put aside college educations, budding romances and normal life. They weren’t forced to, often didn’t grow up with the constant threat of rocket attacks and terror. Yet they choose to come.
It’s a difficult choice to make at any given time. Things in the Middle East always tend towards the volatile. But over the past few weeks Israel has fought its bloodiest war in more than a decade. We’ve seen the pictures, heard the stories and wept at the losses. Two lone soldiers were among the 64 IDF soldiers killed defending Israel. Hamas just violated the 11th ceasefire. And launched nearly 200 rockets in one day at Israel just to show that they meant business. It seems that things are far from over. And even if they were… Even if Operation Protective Edge finished today, what happens tomorrow, next year and the year after that? How long until someone else decides to challenge Israel’s right to exist? Hamas isn’t the only militant with a grudge in the neighbourhood. Israel’s history has proven time and time again that she needs to defend, needs to be on guard. And the ones on the front lines, the ones in the dust and between the bullets, sleeping in their boots for days on end are the soldiers. These are the truths, the daily realities that young Jews in the Diaspora have to factor in when making the choice to become a lone soldier. And the list of cons seems endless. Because if there was ever a time not to make that choice, it would be now. I mean, it’s not the logical thing to do right?
Yet many young people are making exactly that choice. Like my friend Sarah. Like the 109 immigrants from America and Canada who arrived in Israel last week to join the IDF. The media called it the “Lone Soldiers’ Flight”. It brought 55 young men and 54 young women. All of them will soon defend Israel as lone soldiers. They aren’t the only ones. The steady trickle of Jewish sons and daughters coming to serve in the IDF hasn’t diminished. In fact, Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation that helps Jews make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel, reports an increase in the number of lone soldiers joining the IDF. Moreover, the majority of the young men ask to serve in combat units, like Golani and the Paratroopers, the units that suffered the heaviest losses over the past few weeks.
Operation Protective Edge, the realness of war and the death of two lone soldiers seemed to have touched a chord. To many, it underlines the danger that their homeland, their people have to face daily. And then they made a choice. It wasn’t the logical one. In fact, it seems to fly in the face of self-preservation and comfort and all those other niceties. Especially now. Their choice was to show up, to help, to come home.
Perhaps this is one of the beautiful things that this time of tragedy and trauma will birth. That God will stir the hearts of the young Jewish people across the world. That He will strengthen their identify and give them hearts of courage. Like He did with David and Joshua and so many other young Jews before them. And that He would draw them back, with His cords of loving-kindness, to where they belong.
As for me, I look at the choice that Sarah made, that the 109 future lone soldiers made and I know that I was wrong: youth is not wasted on the young.
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