Following the battle of Guadalcanal, Barney Ross recalls himself petitioning a Jewish God. Adkins, in the next foxhole, was praying to a Baptist God. A kid with a hole in his side was praying to a Catholic God. It hit him that there was no difference between himself and his friends beneath a hell of gunfire. He confessed, "I couldn't help but wonder if people have to come that close to death to realize that we are all on the same side and trying to get to the same place."

The face of death has bad breath. Knowing that we are a heartbeat from eternity, we want to be done with it. So we react in several ways. Some of us press the panic button, bracing ourselves for the worst. Others of us draw deeply from the wells of faith. When faith responds to danger, fear crosses our minds like a flash o…