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A Warrior’s Focus

Soldiers have a very difficult job. The very extreme fringe of our job title requires us to possibly take another human life. This is not a task that should be taken lightly. In Iraq, I never fired a shot unless I had to. Unfortunately, I had to a lot.

Before I continue, I’ll warn my audience that the rest of this post is going to be religiously based.

I’m a follower of God and have relied upon His wisdom in my most difficult times. His personal revelations to me have literally saved my life by telling me to turn right when I wanted to go left. Later I found that had I turned right, I faced a huge gaggle of anti-American forces that were gathering at my destination.

A couple of years ago, one of the leaders in my church gave an awesome talk that serves as a sort of basis for how I dispatch my responsibilities:

“When armies are formed, battles are generally fought on vast battlefields. But this battle for souls quite different. The conflict goes on each day in individual lives and pits the Lord’s troops against Satan’s forces of greed, selfishness, and lust. The weapons of choice are not spears and swords wielded on a chaotic field of battle.

“Rather, the weapons of eternal worth reflecting the whole armor of God are truth, righteousness, faith, prayer, and the word of God. These weapons are wielded in our minds, mouths, and movements. Every righteous thought, word, and deed is a victory for the Lord.

“The stakes are extremely high. The prizes are the very souls of the sons and daughters of God, their eternal salvation. And these souls will be won or lost on the basis of virtue and cleanliness, on the basis of charity and service, and on the basis of faith and hope.”

I won’t quote it here, but I love the passage in Ephesians (6:13-18) that speaks of the kinds of armor we should be wearing.

There’s a saying in the military that there are no atheists in the foxhole. There’s a good reason for that. When you’re stuck somewhere and bullets are flying, explosions are blowing all around you, and you feel like there’s no way out, you can’t help but start to believe in miracles. Personally, my very presence here is the result of three such miracles. We read a lot about Soldiers who did not follow these simple virtues and values and ended up giving the military a black eye. The life of a Soldier can be so much easier if we but follow these simple principles as we execute the sensitive missions entrusted to us by a grateful nation. One does not need to believe in God to realize that “virtue and cleanliness, on the basis of charity and service, and on the basis of faith and hope” will see us through just about any difficulty we face in combat.

By living these principles, issues like Abu Ghraib, Haditha (had it been true), and other issues facing the military would not happen. The positive side to this is that these principles ARE adhered to by most. Servicemembers are constantly choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. It’s difficult to find them in the mainstream media, but the local news has typically been very good at telling those stories. You can also find them on military blogs all over the place. One of our reasons for existence is to tell those stories. And we wouldn’t be able to tell those stories without the devoted milblog readers – YOU!

Now, go read this neat story.

4 Comments »

4 Responses to “A Warrior’s Focus”

  • Donna

    September 24th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

    CJ,
    I’m glad that you know God and that he has helped you in Iraq and elsewhere to avoid being killed or maimed. We wouldn’t have had the pleasure of getting to know you through your writings and your blog if he hadn’t. I’m sure that Emily is so thankful to God for keeping you and bringing you home to her. Keep on keeping on and writing, we love it!

    Also, I hope that you and your family have a great trip and get settled in your new home soon ! God Bless!! :)

  • Donna

    September 24th, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    P.S. I loved the story about the soldier wearing his flak jacket with the plates in to exercise! Talking about determination…..Wow!!

  • Tracy

    September 24th, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    I’m so glad you listened to that still small voice and turned the opposite direction than you wanted to. Stories like yours always give me goosebumps, but I love to hear them. It shows how our God is so involved in our lives.

    thank you for sharing CJ

  • Beth* A.

    September 25th, 2007 at 11:36 am

    I second what all 3 commenters said above. Have a good, smooth trip to your new home, CJ and family.

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