Keep On Keeping On

Deployment has a way of sneaking up on my emotions when I least expect it. The other day I thought that I was doing well, when some news came my way rather unexpectedly. This particular piece of news, although I cannot share its contents, was not good. And from laughing and joking with my colleagues, we all sort of paused and looked at each other. After a weird collective insecure silence, we all quickly finished our conversations and scattered to reflect, each in our own way, the content of what we had been told. This left me missing home tremendously.

For about 3 hours I was in an official funk. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to sit and be miserable all alone. And, I don’t understand why when I am in a funk; I also want to listen to depressing music. But whatever the reason, I was definitely in bad shape.

Then, I went to dinner with my normal group that goes to dinner together. We all vented our frustrations. Before long I realized that I was here with other people that really know what I am going through, because they are going through the same thing too. I know this sounds obvious as I write this, but when you are wading through the bog of emotionality, the retrospectoscope is nowhere to be found, and practical reasoning is just out of reach.

Each one of us carries each other’s burdens as our own as we share a common experience. And it is surprising that this is all within a primarily secular environment. Why can’t we translate what we experience here as soldiers, back to our churches as soldiers for God? Personally, I think it is because back home we, deep down, don’t really believe we are in an all-out war for the souls of those we live around. And the Evangelical Church’s idea of community isn’t even close to the kind of community that is established here. In truth, life here is far closer to a commune.

But whatever the reasons were, after dinner we were feeling much better. That’s when I looked up and saw this huge flag in the hanger of the fire station near the hospital. I turned to the PA that works with me and suggested that that would make a perfect back drop for a picture. He agreed. And after asking the fire dept guys if we could climb on there truck, we laughed as we snapped a couple of pics each.

God Bless America, may we keep true to the Biblical values that founded our great nation.