Relationships & Peacemaking

They were becoming a family …

Here and there … in tiny snippets … (often when I’m tired and just feel like slothfully procrastinating rather than working on some BIG HUGE projects that I really need to tackle one of these days) …

I’ve been reading Band of Brothers.

Have you read this book?
Do you like war/military books? I do.

The first one I remember reading was General H. Normal Schwarzkopf’s autobiography, It Doesn’t Take a Hero. I was in undergrad during the first Gulf War and I remember picking it up out of curiosity and a genuine sense of how IGNORANT I was when it came to our military.

(It Doesn’t Take a Hero is a great read, by the way. I highly recommend it if you like biographies of military personnel. It’s been over ten years since I read it and I can still picture the scene in Viet Nam when his met were caught in a MINE FIELD and he ordered a junior officer to go back to the base and get all of the SHAVING CREAM he could carry. The officer did so and then, as the mine teams found the mines and cleared safe paths, they put down shaving cream to lead the men out of danger. Although encouraged to leave, Gen. Schwarzkopf stayed until every man was out of that mine field.)

Of course, I know that there are THOUSANDS of such stories from our military … but this one sticks in my mind because of the OBEDIENCE of the man who went to get the shaving cream.

Couldn’t you hear him arguing? “What! Shaving cream? Are you crazy? What is THAT going to do?”
But no … he obeyed and then men were saved.

At the very beginning of Band of Brothers, the author stated that:

“The men were learning instant, unquestioning obedience. Minor infractions were punished on the spot, usually by requiring the man to do twenty push-ups. More serious infractions cost a man his weekend pass, or several hours marching in full field pack on the parade ground. The Army had a saying, “We can’t make you do anything, but we can make you wish you had.”

Brought together by their misery, held together by their cadence counts, singing, and common experiences, they were becoming a family …

… with incredible results in combat. They would literally insist on going hungry for one another, freezing for one another, dying for one another. And the squad would try to protect them or bail them out without the slightest regard to consequences, cussing them all the way for making it necessary.”

I read all of this and I can’t help but reflect on my own life …

Especially in the church.

We CLAIM to be a “family”–but seriously? How committed are we to one another?

We SAY that we are “at war” (with our enemies … Satan, the world, our Old Man residual sinful natures). But really? Do we act like it?

Or do we turn on each other? View each other as the enemy? (Our husband, wife, pastor, “former friend.”)

 

And what about this whole obedience thing?
Do I really obey?
Or do I obey ONLY when people are WATCHING?

What truly rules my heart?
What really matters to me?
How do I live in secret? When I THINK I’m “getting away with” something?

Thank God for our military! (I do. I really, really do.)
Thank God for the example and their reminder of what familial commitment, obedience, and SACRIFICE all look like in real life.

And thank God for conviction. My unease is a good sign–
I pray that I will never be comfortable in my sin and unbelief.

Blessed Thursday to you all!

We’re taking Lilikoi back for a wound check this morning–her hyperactivity was making it hard for her body to heal, so on Monday the vet put her on tranquilizers. For the WEEK. She basically told me that Lili was going to SLEEP for a WEEK in order to give her body time to heal. And she pretty much is doing just that.

It’s actually pretty weird to have this little lump of a Lilikoi where normally there is a spaz. (She even drank her water from her water dish LYING DOWN the other night. Is that pathetic or WHAT?!?) Oh–and the vet warned me that when dogs are tranquilized, “Their third eyelids COME OUT” so I shouldn’t be worried about that (!!!!!). Did you know dogs have three eyelids? Oh, oh, oh … the things you learn by checking in on this blog, eh?

Love to all!

Yours,
Tara B.