We have it better than we think...

I had the opportunity to sit with some guys at lunch today, one of which is our new Executive Pastor at church.  Sounds fancy, doesn't it!  Part of his journey in his life is a military assignment as a chaplain during the current ongoing war.  He shared many things from that time, and we had many different questions for him.  One of the questions I asked him was about what God taught him through that experience overseas.  He spoke specifically about gratitude.  Not only did he speak about it, but his eyes welled up with tears, and raw emotion overtook him as he answered my question.

He said that the men and women over there never know if the current day will be their last.  That they struggle with things like having to kill enemies, or even killing innocent civilians.  They question how God sees them through that.  They live in an environment where you can trust almost nobody.  They never know if five feet in front of their vehicle is a bomb waiting for them.  Can you imagine having to live through that?  Can you even fathom that being your everyday?  To be on the ground moving with your crew and having people firing guns and other things at you trying to kill you?

My stomach turned at first.  I am a very empathetic person (empathetic, NOT pathetic!), and to try to put myself in his or their place broke my heart.  To see him so moved by what he lived through, as well as moved by God's grace, really impacted me.  As he kept on though, my focus became more clearly fixated on praying more than ever in many different ways for our troops that are fighting to protect us and our freedom.  God showed me more than ever today that I have MANY things to be thankful for, both big and small.  I think that WAY too often we take the little things for granted.

I ask you to stop and think about these troops.  Think about their lives they live over there, the battles they daily face, emotions, questions, etc.  It is NOTHING like we live over here in our country.  It is also NOTHING that any of us that have not been there can even start to pretend to understand.

So to any troops that might read this, I say a heartfelt thank you for your service and sacrifice.  If I can ever do anything at all for you, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Thanks for sharing, Terry.