The Online Chaplain

Worth 1000 Words and What Your Military is all About.

Even the Chaplain Gets Ticked Off

All of us have adjusted our calendars to the reality of our extension. There are only a few stragglers who refuse to embrace the pain and are yet in the arms of Lady Denial. Most, however, picked up the straw the Army handed us and have sucked it up.

This was the final turning point for me. Midweek, I got angry - royally. You might even go so far as to say the chaplain had a tantrum, fortunately it was private. It was this outburst of anger that finally saved me from my self and allowed me to continue on with the mission.

I was reading in my Bible and I came across and old friend, "there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all." This is what made me mad. I realized the truth of this statement. I have one Lord. And guess what? It is not this war. It is not terrorists. It is not George W. Bush. It is not my commitment to my country, or even my sense of duty. I have one Lord, and none of these things are it. I serve Christ, and no other. I am here because this is where Christ has directed my life, and no other. I am here because God has laid it upon my heart to serve soldiers. It was his voice I heard that directed me to this calling, and no other.

So, I will go home when God ordains it, an in the manner he ordains. Period. So, with this in mind I had a little temple cleaning to do. I had some unwanted guests. Self-pity had came and set up camp for a few days. I had to show her the door. Egocentricity came and was sitting in my living room and I had to tell him to get the hell out. Loneliness and fatigue were sitting on my porch having a cup of coffee and I gently showed them to the road and said, "drive on."

The bible says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" So, once in a while you just have to apply a little elbow grease and clean." A little temple cleaning gets you on the right track, in the right frame of mind, and back to the purpose God has called you too. If you are sitting there reading this and you feel you have unwanted guests, clean the temple. Sweep it good because the Lord has work for you to do. Come on, get her done, daylight is burning. You can do it. Go for it. Whether we are soldiers or house wives, presidents or paupers the job we are doing is to important to be taken over by SELF. Love God, Love Others and let the Lord take care of the details.

So he (Jesus) made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

Keep the Faith

Each and everyone one of us are going through tough times right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith.

Two Principles for Handling Disappointment

Principle # 1 Realize You Are In Good Company:
I was listening to a preacher once in seminary. He made the statement, “98% of all families are dysfunctional.” Ha! Who here as ever met any one who is part of the 2%? There is no golden life. The rich and the poor, the common and the famous, presidents and paupers all deal with disappointment. No matter who you are the mountain of expectation can tumble down. Everyone has been “dissed”. Take this man for example...

• At the age of 7 his family was forced out of their home. He worked to help support them.
• At the age of 9 his mother died.
• At the age of 21 he failed in business.
• At the age of 22 he ran for the legislature and lost., and lost his job was turned down when he applied for law school.
• At the age of 23 he started another business on borrowed money, by age 24 was bankrupt.
• At the age of 25 he was engaged to be married and his fiancé died.
• At the age of 26 he had a nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
• At the age of 28 he was defeated as speaker of the state legislature.
• At the age of 33 he ran for congress and lost.
• At the age of 38 he ran for congress again and lost.
• At the age of 44 he ran for the US Senate and lost.
• At the age of 46 he tried for his parties Vice President nomination. He received less than 100 votes and lost.
• At the age of 48 he ran for the US Senate again, and lost.
• At the age of 50 was elected to be the President of the United States of America.

It was this man of consistent failure which God called on to preserve a constitution, which is now the oldest governing constitution in the world. It was this man of failure God called upon to preserve a way of life which is the envy of the world. It was this man who failed in business time and time again, that God called upon to go about the business of preserving a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which shall not perish from the earth,” as he so eloquently described in the Gettysburg Address.

Even Abraham Lincoln had his share of disappointments.

Yep, the 1BCT got “dissed.” When you expect to go home in about six weeks and learn that it will be about six months you can’t help but be disappointed. But, just as hundreds of thousands before us, we will turn our disappointment into opportunity. And just like the hundreds of thousands before us we realize we are in good company.

Principle #2 Whine like Crazy
This isn’t the advice you thought you would get. But, my advice to you is this when you are disappointed with life whine. However, do not whine to me, not to your neighbor and certainly not to your family. If you are going to whine, whine to God. Frankly there is quite a little of it in the Bible. In the Old Testament they don’t however call it whining. They call it lamenting. Laments are the great “why’s” of the Bible. It is when we turn to God and say, “I’m thirsty God, and I want to know where my water is?” “Why me, God? It isn't fair!” I’ve been dissed Lord.

Life certainly seems to be filled with a great deal of disappointment from time to time. We wonder if there is any sense to anything in those times when we feel thoroughly crushed, when we don't know if we can bear the pain any longer, when there seems to be no hope at all. And it is in these times that we begin to wonder if God really cares.

The person who wrote Psalm 88 clearly felt like he had nothing but bad luck and let God know about it. Day and night he cried out to the Lord, about his plight and his sense of being forsaken and alone and without escape. And what answer does he get from God? Nothing! “O Lord, Why does thou cast me off? Why does thou hide thy face from me?” “Why are you making it so cotton picking hard to make a living these days.

That the psalmist whines, but what is amazing is that he whines to God. Even in his despair, (or perhaps, because of it), the psalmist displays an extraordinary trust in God.

We too seem to be in a situation similar to that of the psalmist. We too can justifiably complain to God. We can ask, “Where are you God?” We can ask, “Why me, God?” The psalmist does not find any answers, nor do we find simple solutions. Indeed, we have no easy answers.

So what do we have? The psalmist had a God in whom he could trust even in his greatest despair. We do too.

Hurts When You Breathe

It’s hard to say something profound if it hurts when you breathe.  It is hard to wax eloquently when it feels a St. Bernard has locked his jaws onto your backside.  That is where we find ourselves today.  The 1st BCT has received the equivalent of a warning order that we are being extended for an unspecified period of time in Iraq.  Soon we will find out if it is true or not, but the effect of the possibility is true enough.  Back home in the states the news spread like wild fire.  Here it landed like mortars with a sick thud.

Near the end of our race just when we thought the finish line would be around the next bend, we have learned our 10k race may actually be a marathon. Like a runner who didn’t pace himself for the full race we are hurting a bit, ok a lot.  If this happens we will miss another season of birthdays, anniversaries, and special events.  Parents, spouses and children will drive on without us for another season.  This is the proposed reality we face. It is a little hard to breathe if you think to long on it.

This hard to breathe feeling becomes over time, all too common. I have felt it before.  So have you. I felt it the day my mother died. I heard the gasp in a friend’s voice not to long ago as he explained to me the type of cancer he has and the treatment he will endure.  I heard it in my dear wife’s voice as we contemplated the possibility of deployment eighteen months ago, and again yesterday when we talked about extension.  Today I saw it in more soldiers’ eyes than I can count.

The Bible says, “…Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” By biblical definition a prophet speaks for God, so let me give speaking for God a try.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations."

God will sustain you through this time in your life.  God will keep your going out and coming in. God will watch over you. The God of the universe who holds the stars in the sky and controls the beat of your heart has not abandoned you. He has a plan and the heart of that plan is your welfare. Know the truth…you will get your second wind.  We will be gathered from the nations. We are not alone.