Since Veterans Day was yesterday here in the US, I thought that it would be pretty cool to write about veterans. Now, I’m not a veteran in the sense of having been involved in our country’s military. However, I remember being involved in “warfare” when I was in our youth group. We started getting together to play paintball. Knowing nothing about war, or strategy, didn’t stop us from splattering each other with paint. We began walking through the woods as the colonials did during the Revolutionary War. In a “skirmish line”. A straight line, side-by-side through the woods. Our battles would last a couple of minutes because we all got picked off pretty quickly.
Then we had a guy join in who had been to Vietnam. He taught us to walk in a staggered line behind each other, not beside each other. The point man would walk about 20 yards ahead of the rest of us, and as soon as we encountered the enemy, the last two people in the line automatically flanked right or left, depending on the terrain, to try to outflank the enemy. Our battles lasted a little longer this way. We even won a few.
This was in the late 80’s and we were also pretty big into spiritual warfare. At least as we knew it then. We got together every Thursday morning at 5:30 am to pray. For a bunch of kids, we had a good group turn out to engage the enemy. We would pray for an hour or so every week. We would get in the church’s big yellow and black bus and drive around our city praying. We would target specific areas of the city for prayer. We prayed for specific schools and events. And we saw results! We were encouraged by seeing answers to our prayers and so we would fight all the harder.
I remember during one of our meetings, our Youth Pastor was speaking on our legacy. He posed a question to our group. “When you die, what do you want your tombstone to read?” As I pondered this question, in my youthful fervor, I decided that I would like my tombstone to be inscribed with “He was a good soldier”. Be careful what you ask for! Little did I realize what being a good soldier meant. I have since learned.
I am often reminded of a couple of lines in the movie Evan Almighty. In the movie, Evans wife, played by Lauren Graham, is in a restaurant talking with Morgan Freeman, who is playing the part of God. She is complaining about how difficult everything has become and Freeman gives her “God’s” wisdom. He says, “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
Now I know that Morgan Freeman isn’t really God, but I do think that there is some Godly wisdom in his words. James says something very similar when he talks about us suffering as Christians. James 1:2 ~ Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
I didn’t know it then, but what I was really praying for was a lot of battles in life so that I could be formed into a soldier. God has answered my prayers. It seems at times that my life has been a fairly constant set of battles, broken my very short times of rest. As I look back over the years, most of those years have been full of difficulties. I’m not complaining. Just stating what I perceive to be the reality of it. The outcome of this though, is that I have learned how to be a good soldier. I’ve learned that my battle is not with people. My battle is with the one controlling those people (Ephesians 6:12). I’ve learned how to pray for those who are persecuting me, how to turn the other cheek and, most importantly, I’ve learned to trust God not only when things are going well, but when things don’t go as I thought they should. I’ve learned to be a good soldier. As Paul instructed Timothy. 2 Timothy 2:3 ~ “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.” Being a good soldier in this sense requires suffering. I’ve learned that there is a lesson for me in every challenge and the quicker I learn it, the shorter the challenge will be.
The one constant for me has been that everything has turned out OK. At the end of the day, I have a loving wife, a great family, a nice home, a good job, friends ~ basically everything that most people want out of life. And the plus is, I’m a better person than I would have been had I not faced some of the challenges that I did and learned the lesson that they were meant to teach me. I can honestly say that I didn’t enjoy, or even appreciate the challenges as I was facing them. At times, I didn’t know what was around the corner. But God came through when nothing else worked. I came away from each circumstance with a different perspective ~ a lesson learned.
My hope is that whatever you face today, or in the months and years ahead, you will also be a good soldier. Recognize that whatever you face, it did not come as a surprise to God. He was aware of it long before you were and has already mapped out a strategy for you to come out of the battle a better person than you were when you entered the battle. While it may be difficult to recognize now, the challenges really are good for you. Look for the lesson in every challenge. Learn it and emerge as more like the person God intended for you to be. Learn your lesson.