Choose wisely.

Sad news came our way as we were preparing this issue. Tom Fox, a devoted 54-year-old father of two from Virginia who loved music and cooking and had worked at a Quaker camp for youth, was found dead in Baghdad on March 10.

Fox, you'll remember, was one of four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq who were kidnapped last November. For the past two years he chose to work with CPT in partnership with Iraqi human rights organizations to promote peace.

The day before he was abducted Fox wrote on his blog: "As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other.... 'Why are we here?' We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us.... We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children."

Along with many others, I have great admiration for Fox and his colleagues, and just before this issue went to press I rejoiced at the news that the others had been freed.

But even if you don't agree with their pacifist position, it's clear that their choice to leave the comfort of home to do what faith compelled them to do was not easy.

I've thought a lot about that choice the last few weeks. Not all of us can--or want to--travel to Iraq to witness for peace. But every day, each of us faces choices that deserve the kind of reflection, action, and sacrifice that Fox modeled so beautifully.

This issue is full of stories about choices. What do you do when you're feeling demoralized by a church devastated by child sexual abuse? Karen Dix writes about her choice to work for healing in "Crisis management" (pages 24-28). What if you want more than anything to be a mother but struggle with the heartbreak of infertility? Ginny Moyer shares her choice to broaden her definitions in "Maternal instincts" (pages 29-31). What if you're frustrated by a zealous evangelical who keeps trying to convert you because she doesn't believe Catholics are Christian? In "Save me, Jesus!" (pages 12-17) Peter Feuerherd describes choices that can help ease tension.

In a letter on electronicIraq.net written to Fox after his body was found, CPT member Sheila Provencher (whose story "Dispatches from Iraq" appeared in our March issue) remembers when she met Fox in October 2004. "You, Matthew, and I were the whole team in Baghdad, and we talked about kidnapping, what could happen to us, and if we should stay in Iraq. You wrote a statement of conviction that included the words, 'If I am ever called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice in love of enemy, I trust that God will give me the grace to do so.' You did it, Tom. You were faithful until the very end."

As we go about making the choices of our lives, let's add a name to the litany of saints. Tom Fox, pray for us.