I fell in love with this particular post last time and have taken an unofficial role in guiding our soldiers around the post. I point out that the American DFAC is better than the Coalition DFAC (probably British food), though if up for midnight chow, the Coalition DFAC offers a few interesting options that an American wouldn't normally see. I highly commend the Italian pizza place here, which offers pizza that is both cheaper and far superior to Pizza Hut--a name not allowed to be spoken of here because there is truly no comparison. At this same pizza place, I have invited soldiers to join me for Cappuccinos and croissants each morning that we are here. I am also trying to set up a movie night to watch Lone Survivor in the post movie room.
About a dozen soldiers followed my lead on the pizza place for lunch and I enjoyed wonderful conversations with them. One of our NCOs bought hot chocolate for two of us and near-beer for another two soldiers in order to keep the party going.
I enjoyed dinner (at the American DFAC) with several soldiers, where I asked each of them about their favorite thing and least favorite thing about this deployment. The responses were interesting, especially as different soldiers produced very different answers depending on where they were posted in the country.
I spent an hour and a half talking with a chaplain who will be joining the 10th SF Group in Colorado upon his redeployment. He offered lots of wonderful insights in terms of future chaplaincy possibilities.
When passing through our transition country on the way home, each soldier will be allowed two beers a day. I love this policy, as it allows soldiers to enjoy this fine libation but keeps them from excess, which is particularly tempting after a deployment. I have already made it clear to my soldiers that we will not tolerate someone being a "Gloomy Gus" (hehehe--I love old, tacky terminology) and drinking alone, tormented by the horrors of war. Drink time is group time. Time for celebrating life, reflecting on experiences, and having quality manversations. I am excited for the opportunities afforded by such a time to care for soldiers.
I was read Malachi 1 this morning as I finish winding my way through the Minor Prophets in my personal devotional time. God tells the people He has loved them. They ask how he loved them. He tells them "Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated."
It's interested that this is God's response. It stretches back to the time of Jacob and Esau in Genesis, and is used to speak of God predestination of some to life and some to death in Romans 9. After God says this in Malachi, he describes the utter destruction and ruination that He has brought upon the line of Esau.
What does this have to do with God's love? Such destruction seems the very antithesis of love.
God's response through Paul in Romans 9 (italics mine):
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
Contrary to expectation, God's wrath reveals His love. His just judgment of the world provides the stark backdrop upon which the colorful canvas of God's redemptive love is manifested. How would we know mercy but for His justice? How would we know His love but for His decree of destruction upon sinners?
Over and over we see that God's predestination of some to life and others to death is not a hard teaching due to its apparent contrariness to our conception of a God of love, but because we don't truly understand our loving God and the love He has poured out upon us in Christ Jesus. He hates the wicked, but He loves us. So we ask again, "How has God loved us?" At just the right time, Christ died for sinners.
