Well, after lots of working and waiting, the final countdown
has begun.
The suspense is building for the soldiers. Some look forward
to getting into the fight and the cause it represents; many look forward to
escaping the monotony of this current phase and getting to work; all look
forward to being one step closer to coming home to their families.
For me, there is an anticipation of finally being where I
have long felt called to be. I have loved this country and admired her soldiers
for as long as I can remember. When I
tried to enlist after 9/11, it was not only because my family were some of
those walking out of DC on foot, but also because the country and ideals I
revered were under attack. I want my
children to inherit the precious freedoms and responsibilities I inherited,
enshrined in the most ingenious governing documents crafted in the history of
mankind.
While I didn’t ultimately enlist just after 9/11, I admired
my brother, who had enlisted and ended up serving in Iraq. His experience was a
poor one, negatively affected by the same military he pledged to serve. This
only tightened my resolve to one day join that same military and care for the soldiers
who might slip through the cracks or suffer abuse at the hands of the corrupt.
My hero, Machen, served in the YMCA during WWI. He was
greatly disheartened by the false hope often given to soldiers by a corroded
chaplaincy. We are not to trust in our own sacrifice at the portal of death, he
would argue, but trust in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for sinners. My
hope and prayer is that on this deployment, regardless of who embraces this
hope (which is in the hands of the sovereign God), that the hope of Christ is
at least ringing in every set of ears of the men and women that God has
entrusted to me.
I am incredibly proud of the soldiers that I am serving
with. I know the price that many have paid in previous deployments to ransom
our country from the threat of tyranny. I know the price that all our paying
now, missing precious moments with precious people to help secure a more
precious future.
I am proud to be an American. Not because we are a superior
race of people as some might arrogantly believe, but because we are melting pot
of people from all over the world, bound my certain ideals. What other country
is identified by ideals rather than a particular people group? This is reflected
in the diversity of the military. Here, the formerly racist white soldier from the
boonies and the formerly racist black soldier from the projects serve
back-to-back, fiercely loyal to one another. Outside of the church, there is no
institution greater than the military at uniting all types of people in one
common goal.
And it is with this institution—this force of sacrificial patriots
who will stand in the gap and stare tyranny and terror in the eye that it may
never reach our precious land—that I gratefully serve.
