Inspiration

After 34 Mondays in a row, I woke up last week and it was finally Saturday.  It has been an extra long first leg of deployment, but seeing my family at the end was totally worth it. 

 

A few things get me through lonely nights: my faith and reliance on God; the love of my family; and reading, lots of reading.  I usually read during the little free time I have and at night before I fall asleep.  So far, I have read The Hobbit, and am in the middle of Blood and Thunder, by Hampton Sides.  The latter is about the US war with Mexico, the claiming of the New Mexico Territory, and the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans.  It follows Kit Carson as the central character.  It is very interesting, especially being from New Mexico and spending most of my childhood in NM’s northern mountains.  I highly recommend it.  Anyway, I wanted to share a few quotes that really struck me this past month.

The Hobbit

“I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!”  It was not the last time that he wished that! 

There hasn’t been a day that I don’t think about the things I could be doing in my nice “hole.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job.  I love leading soldiers and “getting in the dirt,” but I will always long for home.

It was at this point that Bilbo stopped.  Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did.  The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it.  He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.  At any rate after a short halt go on he did.

This is as true for me as it is for Julia.  I fought a real battle in the Airport on Tuesday.  Saying goodbye- fully committing my mind to that which I know I have to do.  Julia- committing her mind to raise Ellie by herself and to keep the house, pay the bills, and keep everything else in order.  There will be hard days and nights, and times when I may be in danger, but I already did the hardest part of this deployment.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Word.

“I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air.  I am he that walks unseen… I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water.”

This last quote comes from when the Dragon asks Bilbo who he is.  I included it because it is a pretty cool parallel to Christ.

The Bible NKJ

1 Corinthians 15:33

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”  Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God.

1 Corinthians 5:9

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

I have a delicate line to walk.  In the Army, like the rest of the world, there are all kinds of people and all kinds of depravity.  I have seen my “good habits” become corrupted and I have also seen me border on judgmental.  I serve with great people, many of whom do not know Christ.  However, I must hold myself accountable to the Truth I know, but shouldn’t expect those who do not know or believe in Christ to hold themselves to the same standard. 

A few more goodies:

1 Corinthians 16:13

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.  Let all that you do be done with love.

John 6:28-29

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

John 6:68-69

“Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Blood and Thunder

“How little do those who sit in their easy chairs in Washington know of the privations we are daily subjected to.  Even our anxious friends at home can form no idea of the trials we undergo.”

-Taken from the diary of Captain Turner, a commander in the invading Army.

A soldier’s wife in St. Louis was much like a whaler’s wife in Boston – she said good-bye to her beloved as he set sail on an ocean of land and then she accepted the voids of silence, the hard nights of not knowing, as the weeks and months became years.

Although technology has changed much about warfare and a soldier’s connection with home, these both still hold true.  Current hardships are not nearly as bad as then (for example, many soldiers were stationed in Santa Fe for several years without their families), but this is no comfort for me and Julia.

It may be a few weeks before I get to post again.  So, if you don’t see any updates, don’t worry.