118. That is the number of counseling sessions I have performed while here in country. That does not count the two dozen or so sessions while in Texas. At the current pace, I will likely hit 150 by the end of the deployment. The dominant issue that soldiers deal with is family/relationships, followed at a distant second by professional dynamics. This reinforces the continued need for proactive and preventative care for marriages, coping strategies for married couples going through a deployment, and measures to ease the reintegration of soldiers into their families post-deployment.
Proverbs. Some Christians treat this book of the Bible as a handbook for managing money or raising a family. I think a soldier of mine understands it better, though in incomplete form. He is reading through the Bible for the second time on this deployment. He dreads the day he arrives again at Proverbs, as it made him break down last time. He said it reminded him of how much of a failure he truly his. What he understands is that none of us can fulfill God's requirement for perfect wisdom, just as we can't fulfill the demands of His perfect law. Proverbs is not meant to be a self-righteous checklist--it drives us to the cross. And that is why this soldier's tears, as poignant as they are in showing the power of the law, are misplaced. We should weep when reading Proverbs, but only because Christ, the God-man and wisdom incarnate, offered His perfect wisdom in place of our foolishness, and endured the foolishness of the cross that we might delight in His wisdom.
My friend, the "married" lesbian. Well, if I've already poked the frozen hornet's nest where Santa lives, I might as well go back to the issue that draws fire from all sides. I have a female soldier friend out here who is married to another woman. I could tell her that such marriage does not make sense, but I do not. She is now having some significant relationship issues. I could tell her that such issues are magnified in relationships with a sexual carbon copy of yourself, but I do not. She knows she can talk to me, and I will pray for both her and "Nadya." I will pray that the brokenness of this relationship will drive her to the cross, just as I must pray that the brokenness of a promiscuous heterosexual relationship will drive people to the cross, and just as I must pray that the brokenness of properly ordered marriages drive people to the cross. The reality is, whether living in a sinful relationship or not, we are all sinners in relationships, desperately in need of the cross.
Won't someone think of the children? We had a 5k this morning to raise support for Operation Outreach--our group that makes flammable bricks for the poor during these bitter winters. We raised a couple hundred dollars, with hopefully more to come. Here's a pic (the Aussie in the Spider Man outfit won):
The VBIED. A Toyota Corolla packed with explosives rammed one of our armored coalition vehicles near the post today. Most people here felt it. The sirens went off, the big voice went on, and people started rushing to their positions in case there was a follow up attack. Sadly, there were coalition casualties and fatalities in this attack. More families left with nothing but pictures.
No crying He makes? I sparred a little with another Christian earlier this week over whether Jesus did or did not cry as a baby. He argued that a baby's cries are inherently sinful, and as Christ was without sin, He could not have cried as a baby. I argued that while babies themselves are inherently sinful, there are no grounds to the assertion that their cries are sinful. In fact, crying seems to be a fundamental human response to life in broken world. Later in life, Jesus wept over Jerusalem and his friend, Lazarus. He wept over the fallen condition of this world and of mankind.
He took His tears to the cross, every tear of His people to one day wipe away.
(15)
