First Drill

I was extremely blessed to get to Drill for the first time in my life the weekend of 9/11.
This marked a downward spiral for my life, 9-11-2001. Depression set in, frustration, anger, helplessness. My daughter was 6 years old and my marriage was weak, I was not in a position to join the military, despite a desperate desire to do so. It would have been wrong for me.
Eight years later, the Lord called me into the ministry of the Chaplaincy. I started a new church, and only after this calling and investigating the options available, I later discovered that they had a chaplaincy commissioning board, and the brother in law to our praise leader was the state recruiter for Chaplains! What a powerful confirmation of my calling.
The drill consisted of me shadowing a spectacular Chaplain and witnessing his counseling and encouragement skills. Many people minister to those that they like, those with a connection or common interest. In this role, we minister to the soldier and their family. I saw a range of simple kids with no life skills all the way to type-A super troops to whom the world is their oyster. Each person takes a specific skill set, a different set of expectations, a different pace, fewer spoken words or more spoken words. Some of these guys are unlovable, others just think they are. None who we encountered remained that way. The scripture is alive and active, and as we spoke it and employed the principles of scripture, their heavy loads seemed manageable and easier. The light of God swallowed the darkness. One troop prayed with us, the first time, he admitted, in a number of years. What a miracle to see a child who abandoned God start to grope for Him. We may or may not later get to see if this was a seedling, a watering, or the reaping of the fruit of the Gospel. It doesn't matter! Only that we were there, providing guidance and counsel that some of these men and women never received growing up. I absolutely had the funnest time of my life "working."
One thing that struck me was a young Chaplain assistant who was sharing stories and anecdotes. After a very short few minutes, I said "You wanted to join the Marines before you came here, didn't you!"
He replied "I spent a year and a half in the Marines before joining the Army, why?"
The "why" is because he reminded me of the other great shaking I had in my life, the passing of a dear friend in the Marine Corps. A man who had everything the world could desire, a hero of mine, passing in his prime. More helplessness. More anger. More depression. This kid was a carbon copy, and I get to be right there with him as he moves forward in his ministry and his career. I told him the story of this Marine friend, how his heart had been tragically and mortally wounded in love. It oddly coincided with this young man's "luck" in love lately. What a fantastic blessing to be able to have almost a prophetic insight into this young man's life, and to be able to warn him of relevant dangers that he can avoid. We all concluded that his next fiance will be arranged by committee, he is not allowed to choose his own.
I am thankful to George Washington for establishing this incredible position for the Continental Army on July 29, 1775 to serve and strengthen our troops, and to protect their constitutional right to freedom of religion. I am grateful that we can be the hands and the feet of our saviour to these men and women and their families, some in the greatest and the lowest points in their lives. We are truly in the most blessed nation on the planet, and perhaps in the history of all time. The Chaplaincy will consist of grave challenges, desperate woes, indescribable joys, and hard, hard work. I have never wanted anything more in my life!

Evil and Suffering Prove God Exists

I wrote a letter to the editor recently, and since they have gone pay per view, it dissappeared.
I will reprint it here, and will source a posting that I borrowed heavily from (almost stole, really) at the end.
I just feel that this is such a constant complaint brought about against the existence of God that it really shouldn't go unanswered. I also recognize the depth of personal pain and angst from which it wells, so I take very seriously your concerns about why a just and loving God allows pain to exist in this realm.

Atheists have been claiming that God cannot exist because of evil and suffering in the world. They say that He should stop the suffering, and if He can’t, then He isn’t omnipotent (all-powerful); if He chooses not to, then He is not benevolent (loving). There are many glaring problems with this point of view, but I will address only a few. First, evil and suffering actually prove that God exists. Second, loving omnipotence could destroy all evil, but do we really want it to? And last, by not destroying evil right away, God proves that He is the God of the scriptures, loving, patient and kind.

If God does not exist, then one cannot raise the straw-man of evil or suffering, since there can be no absolute dictate defining such a thing. Without God, evil and suffering are merely electric impulses in the brain, nothing more. Hitler would be no more evil than a child trampling a flower, and suffering would be the natural state of being. If you believe that defined evil exists, then you believe in God. If you don’t believe in evil, then may God protect us from you.

Once you admit the existence of evil or suffering, you introduce the necessary elements that define it, such as absolute goodness and justice. Without such laws, how could one identify evil? So, by saying that there is evil in the world, one admits to universal laws of good. By admitting that there are universal laws, one then must admit that there is a lawmaker, for nothing can come into existence by itself. If there is a lawmaker who creates laws, then those laws must also be communicated, or they are worthless. By admitting that there is evil, you are forced into admitting a just creator who lovingly communicates these laws to man, just like the God of scriptures.

But what would God see as evil? We define evil as how it affects man. God thinks of evil as how it hinders His will. Now think about God destroying all the evil in the world. All the evil. Not just the outer “world” of cruelty, but the internal world of the “conscience.” Are you pure of all evil? Past deeds and thoughts of envy, greed, malice, gluttony and sexual sin; what if you were part of the mosaic constituting evil in God’s eyes; are you ready for that fiery omnipotence now? No, but that is why God offers to replace you with a more worthy sacrifice, His Son.

Their false arguments reveal more about the worldview of progressives, an “ends justify the means” desire for authoritarian control to demand immediate change, regardless of consequences or cost. God, however, is not impatient, impotent nor unloving. Rather, “the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance”, 2 Pet 3:9. Thankfully, God is waiting to eliminate all evil. That includes us.

Please forgive my beligerence towards these particular progressives, the people writing the letters I was responding to were not seeking truth, but were propogating lies for the distinct purpose of distorting Christ and the truth of His Word.
I believe in a literal arrival of the Messiah in judgement, and that allows me to write the following words. They are my great hope and my only source of comfort when times are truly trying for not only me, but for those who I minister to who are in despair.

I borrowed greatly from the thoughts of Ravi Zacharius and particularly Benjamin Wiker who wrote about the same thing, but much more beautifully here: http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5854&Itemid=100