“Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe.
“No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing.
~Thomas Sowell
(From his September 11, 2009 National Review Online article “Charlatan-in-Chief“)
Continuing with thoughts generated from the book, Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell…
The SEAL training at this point was intense and about to get a bit more so, as described in this bit on his first day in BUD/s First phase, the first day of the first of four weeks that would culminate in Hell Week.
So there they are, class 226, assembled outside the barracks two hours before dawn on Coronado island, the temp about 50 degrees (which is COLD for an Arizonan!). Their class leader presents them to the instructor and without so much as a good morning, he orders them to hit the surf…After that it’s pretty much continual exercise…
By 0600 I had counted out more than 450 push-ups. And there were more, I just couldn’t count any more. I’d also done more than fifty sit-ups. We were ordered from one exercise to another. Guys who were judged to be slacking were ordered to throw in a set of flutter kicks.
“The result of this was pure chaos. Some guys couldn’t keep up, others were doing push-ups when they’d been ordered to do sit-ups, men were falling, hitting the ground facedown. In the end, half of us didn’t know where the hell we were or what we were supposed to be doing. I just kept going, doing my absolute best, through the roars of abuse and the flying spray of the power hoses: push-ups, sit-ups, screwups. It was now all the same to me. Every muscle in my body ached…”
When they finally finished, he was so exhausted he could hardly eat breakfast.
It was, of course, all by design. This was not some kind of crazed Chinese fire drill arranged by the instructors. This was a deadly serious assessment of their charges, a method used to find out, in the hardest possible way, who really wanted to do this, who really cared enough to go through with it, who could face the next four weeks before Hell Week, when things got seriously tough.
“It was designed to compel us to reassess our commitment. Could we really take this punishment? Ninety-eight of us had formed up on the grinder two hours earlier. Only sixty-six of us made it through breakfast…”
The parallels to the Christian life here are uncanny. Just like Jesus, we learn obedience through the things that we suffer, but we also have the opportunity to determine just how important God and His word really are to us. Is it all lip service? Will be serve Him, be loyal to Him only for what we can get out of it? Only so long as things go well for us? And when they stop going well, will we throw in the towel. Or, in SEAL training parlance, “ring the bell?”
God knows, of course, but we don’t. When periods of intense adversity and confusion come, will we be like those seedlings in the parable of the sower that were choked out by the worries and cares of the world? Or will we be like the tree planted by streams of water, whose roots go deep so that it will not fear when the drought comes. Will we be like those trainees who made it through SEAL training, recalling why they were there, determined to give it their all, adamant about not quitting.
That’s just some human, transient activity. Noble for time, perhaps but ultimately temporal. How much more should we, enlisted as trainees in the Lord’s army, keep recalling why we are here, determined to give our Saviour our all, resolutely plugging forward one step at a time, no matter what? SEAL training is something of and in the world. Our training and service is for time and for eternity. Besides, to whom would we go? Who else has the words of truth?
It helps me to look at times of adversity and affliction as training rather than some random misfortune. My life may seem to have devolved into some kind of “crazed Chinese fire drill,” but I can know it has purpose in it, because my Instructor is the one who knows all, who delights in righteousness and justice and grace. SEAL instructors keep close tabs on their trainees, they know exactly what can be withstood without permanent injury and guide the instruction down to the very last increment of pressure that can be tolerated. Confusion, chaos, exhaustion, discomfort, even agony… they know where the line is, even if the recruits do not. Just as God knows our line, though we do not.
Awhile back I wrote about the book Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson (Here) . At the time I’d just begun it. This morning I finished it. That I took as long as I did is no reflection on the book, only on the level of life distractions I’ve been faced with. And actually I think I’ve read it about three times altogether now, given my propensity for skipping ahead and then returning to read through more slowly. I don’t often recommend books, but this is one I do. Especially if you know anything about the angelic conflict, the purpose of suffering, the reason we’re here, how to glorify God… because this book presents a vivid, moving and compelling visual/experiential illustration of what the Christian life is about.
It is not a religious book, though Luttrell does believe in God and it’s very clear that God preserved his life in the mountains of Afghanistan. But the similarities between our lives in training as Christians and then executing that training as we begin to come under more and more pressure from the enemy and the training and deployment of Navy SEALS were amazingly apt. I have turned over the corners of over thirty pages of sections I wanted to quote or reflect upon.
For example…
It was just another example of how amazingly sharp you need to be in order to wear the SEAL Trident. Over and over during training, we were told never to be complacent, reminded constantly of the sheer cunning and unpredictability of our terrorist enemy, of the necessity for total vigilance at all times, of the endless need to watch out for our teammates….
He spends quite a bit of time relating his experiences as he went through the training to be a SEAL before going on to describe the events of Operation Redwing, from which only he survived. The training was absolutely fascinating and in that especially I could relate. Often they would be put uncomfortable, painful situations, like being in cold water up their necks for precisely the amount of time their instructors knew they could bear before expiring.
They were also deliberatedlytreated unjustly. After spending the afternoon cleaning his room, getting everything shining and spotless, a trainee would stand agog as the instructor come to inspect his work would proceed to drop sand on the gleaming floor, tear up the crisply made bed, pull out all the neatly packed-drawers and dump their contents on the floor, all the while yelling at the trainee for being a slob and a lazy bum (well, not those words precisely) and then commanding him to “get wet and sandy.” Which meant to go out fully clothed (in your dress uniform even) jump into the cold Pacific off Coronado island and then roll about in the sand.
I read that part about the time Pastor was talking about how as Christians we are going to receive unjust treatment. It’s a part of suffering for blessing. It’s something God doesn’t just “allow” but in a sense chooses and at times even orchestrates. (As He used Pharaoh). Reading that the Navy SEAL instructors were deliberately unjust was a shock. Here’s a quote:
I asked [Instructor] Reno about this weeks later, and he told me, “Marcus, the body can take damn near anything. It’s the mind that needs training. The question that guy was being asked involved mental strength. Can you handle such injustice? Can you cope with that kind of unfairness, that much of a setback? And still come back with your jaw set, still determined, swearing to God you will never quit? That’s what we’re looking for.”
And that’s what God’s looking for. Not perfection. But plugging. Never giving up on the plan. No matter what hits you, you just keep on going. Because Satan knows just as well as those SEAL instructors that injustice is really, really hard to swallow. It ignites all manner of sins from anger to resentment to vengeance, from sulking to self-pity to giving up. He knows that if he comes at God’s people with injustice a certain number of them are going to throw in the towel. Or, to keep with the SEAL theme, to ring the bell that signalled withdrawal.
To fight in God’s army you have to be able to handle injustice. And pain.
Here’s another quote:
I remember [the instructor] said flatly, “You’re going to hurt while you’re here. That’s our job, to induce pain; not permanent injury, of course, but we need to make you hurt. That’s a big part of becoming a SEAL. We need proof you can take the punishment. And the way out of that is mental… Don’t buckle under to the hurt, rev up your spirit and your motivation, attack the courses. Tell ourself precisely how much you want to be here.”
Of course in our case, it doesn’t depend on us. We can bear the pain and the injustice through the power that God has given us. The power of His word and of His Spirit. But it is primarily born through the mind. The attitude we bring to the suffering is what determines success or failure. Suffering is given to us so we can learn obedience, as Jesus did, and later so that we might glorify God while enduring it. If we get subjective about it, we will fail. If we step back and recognize it as something God has allowed and then ask ourselves what He might be intending fur us to learn from it, we’ll go a long way toward maintaining that proper mental attitude.
And this was just from the first two weeks of the SEAL training. Before they even got to BUD/s and well before they had to face the dreaded Hell Week…
…to be continued.
In our lessons lately, our pastor has been teaching from an outline of five basic principles that encapsulate living the Christian Life. They are…
1. Knowing the angelic conflict
2. Knowing how to glorify God (there are specific criterion)
3. Know no man after the flesh
4. Live for others
5. Continually take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
We just spent a week or so on knowing the angelic conflict — not an indepth teaching on the entire doctrine, but rather emphasizing how it answers some of the deep questions many people ask and few can answer. Why sin? Why did God create any of us, angels included, knowing His creatures would rebel? Why suffering and chaos? Why disaster, especially when it comes into the lives of those who are making good decisions and going forward in the plan of God?
The timing of this in concert with what’s been going on in my own life has been… well, certainly not coincidental since I don’t believe in coincidence. Before the moment needed, God provides His word and its answers. He also provides it after the moment needed, just to confirm. And, come to think of it, in the moment, as well. I guess He’s got all bases covered.
Why suffering? Why disaster? It’s getting clearer for me. Here’s a section of my notes from a recent lesson that really resonated:
You were doing all the right things, you’d made positive decisions, had kept going forward in the Plan and you were waiting for the promised blessings to be dropped in your lap. And they were. Except they didn’t look at all like you expected them to look.
They were the blessings of adversity and undeserved suffering. Not prosperity, going through success and having business propositions coming in that made you look like a great business person. No. What matters isn’t whether you are successful in the world’s eyes, but did you stick with the Plan? Did you keep going forward, reaching for what lies ahead? Or did you come up with an excuse to give it up and go back to the world’s ways?
God has a way of having something come into your life that you didn’t expect. It may be physical suffering; it may be problems in relationships — problems in the marriage, in the family, in friendships. It may be problems with success or money. All seemingly negative things, yet all for our benefit. But if you go forward, regardless, you’ll receive real divine blessings, of the same nature as our Lord received.
When He was on the cross, that didn’t seem at all like blessing according to the world’s view, but look at where He is now because of it: King of kings, Lord of lords, seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places. One day every knee will bow and He will rule forever in righteousness. But He had to go through the Cross first.
I think too often people expect the world to be heaven. They want everything to go right, they want success, money, pleasure, good relationships, good health, etc. I know I did. But if you understand the angelic conflict, then you know that’s not it at all. The world isn’t heaven, it’s fallen. It’s a battleground. It’s a theater. The angels are learning things from us. We’re not here to have things go our way and have a nice life. We’re here to bring glory to God in the angelic conflict. And that takes suffering, as the book of Job so clearly illuminates.
This world is also temporary. What matters is the eternal, but unfortunately I think it takes a lifetime to really believe that.