We have been living on borrowed time. In the over 3,100 years of recorded world history, the world has only been at peace 8% of the time or a total of 286 years, and 8,000 treaties have been made and broken. On any given day, soldiers are firing in thirty to forty nations. Wars of liberation. Territorial disputes. Religious principles. "One man's freedom fighter is another's terrorist," the saying goes, but the common denominator is death. Day in and day out.

I wonder if the apostle Paul ever felt that way. Probably. After all, he lived in a scary world himself — no nuclear nightmares, but just about every other kind. Listen to what he says:

"Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I w…