For these things I weep;
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.
from the book of Lamentations, New King James Version
With the exception of only a handful of days this year, 2015 has been the most painful year of my life. If I could put the mental, emotional and spiritual stuff in terms of the physical, I would say that I have been beaten til I passed out over and over and over again. I have been thrown into a dark pit. I have been stripped naked and mocked. I have pleaded with God to give me a small break. I have begged him to just give me a few seconds of relief. And just when I think he hears my prayer and I'm getting a tiny break in the storm, I'm hit again.
Today I read this piece from a book by David Jeremiah called What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do...
They came up to the ensign and poured a glass of ice water down his back and threw another in his face. The ensign, who had fallen asleep in the chow hall after five sleepless nights, opened his eyes for a second, just long enough to utter a dull “Thank you, sir.” A moment later his eyes rolled upward and then closed. His head went down again. He didn’t touch his meal.
It’s called Hell Week and is part of the navy’s Basic Underwater Demolition School where sailors are turned into SEALs—Sea-Air-Land commandos. By undergoing a grueling regimen of sleepless days and nights, sensory overload, and physical testing, these men are transformed into some of the toughest human beings in the world.
This final period of torturous physical and psychological training begins on Sunday night with exercising and lying wet on cold steel plates, installed on a nearby pier.
On Monday the six-man teams are ordered to run races with 250-pound Zodiac rubber assault boats balanced on their heads. On Tuesday, with less than an hour of sleep the night before, they have to row those Zodiac boats to Mexican waters and back. On Wednesday the men continue the races with boats bouncing on their heads.
The chance to disenroll awaits each student. All he has to do is ring a certain bell three times and say, “I quit.”
By Thursday everyone is hallucinating. By Friday afternoon the week is over, and the new SEALs are lined up to be checked by a doctor.
Only in terms of the ugliness of war can punishment like this make any sense. By pushing these men to the very brink of insanity during times of peace, the navy is giving them the best chance to be ready to face the cruelty of real war if it comes.
In the Bible in the book of James, we are told to not be surprised when we're struck with various trials. We will endure times of intense testing and it might feel like there is no point. But God is not preparing us for great treasure here on earth or times of peace. He is preparing us for the ultimate war which is not against flesh and blood, but against an enemy much bigger than any "terrorist" we face in this world. Our Lord doesn't want a bunch of childish, immature, weak crybabies. He wants soldiers who have been tested, who chose not to ring the bell to be rescued, but continued to be tried so they could endure the cruelty of warfare.
ONLY IN TERMS OF THE UGLINESS OF WAR CAN PUNISHMENT LIKE THIS MAKE ANY SENSE.
May God help me to remember that I am not my own. He called me. I answered that call. My duty is to serve him and continue "hell week" like a champion. I will not ring that bell. I will not quit.
