War and struggle.

War and struggle. I can’t help but be interested in the idea of being an elite warrior. For some reason, the thought of being a Navy SEAL reverberates through my head… But why do I want to be a Navy SEAL? Is it just to be part of a brotherhood that not many people attain to? Or is it because I feel like I would be a contribution to that organization within the Navy?

Along this same line of thinking about being a warrior, comes the thought of knowing, that I, as an individual, am perishable. Yes, God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ into the world, that whosoever believes in Him, will have eternal life. There is a speed bump in between however, and that is a physical, earthly, death. Unless Jesus Christ returns before I meet this phenomenon, I will die. Either as an old man, or from an accident of some kind, or in battle, or, who knows, there are so many situations that could have me hit the aforementioned speed bump.

Also, the thought of being a warrior, seems compelling, until, I can only imagine, you’re the one who takes a bullet, and renders you a paraplegic, or an invalid of some kind or another. I can only imagine, if you didn’t die in this situation, but instead were smattered to just shy of the ultimate breaking point, seeing your body in a state so very incapable of what you used to be able to do, would, I wonder, make me so very frustrated, and I know it would be a battle of its own, just to go on with life if I found myself in this situation. BUT, God would meet my needs! It would suck, the circumstances I’d find myself in, but even as a blessed physically speaking individual, how to do I impair my own self because I think I’m capable of doing things on my own, without God’s help, even though I do admit that I must learn to lean on God for everything, even when I think I’m strong, because only God sees everything.

For now, while all of these questions are stirring in my head, there are some parallels I’ve thought of to being a warrior in the here and now. For example, to act against a static environment like a dirty room, my dirty room, I would have to actually ACT, and perform, and fight against enthalpy. God created ex nihilo, and I will never, ever, do or be capable of that kind of creation. BUT, made in God’s image, as a human being, I have the opportunity to push against the static situations I find in my current life. I have the opportunity to wage war, and be a literal warrior in pushing into territories that I hadn’t owned before, or capture information and knowledge, that before I battled to learn it, I didn’t know before. What a blessing it is, and would be, and a blessing it is, and it is not easy when the sense of euphoria dies away, to be a disciplined individual to wage war against nothingness to create space for one’s own self. It is not glamorous, even when on a euphoric moment, euphoria does not make a man of steel, or historic resolve to better his station in life. It is a thankless task, and one that I feel at times, doesn’t even have a moment to be enjoyed, the space you make for yourself, because it’s just, plain old, work. What would make this work worth it? Being able to help someone else because I had worked hard to know how to help someone in need that didn’t know what I did in order to save them from continued physical harm or disease (a doctor, MD). Or, to learn about the law, get a law jurisprudence degree, so that I can defend, and litigate against others who have acted contrary to the law (a lawyer). Would I be rewarded in the enjoyment-sense by providing a service to another person, and get off (to use a very crass term) on the knowledge that I helped someone because I could, and was happy to do so? Or, is it simply the fact that you know, as an individual in any of these situations, you were able to contribute to something much larger than yourself? Or, another reality I’m sure, and trap, would be to bathe in one’s own ego of accomplishment… is this prideful? Is this an improper fulfillment of hard work, ego boost type mentality? I saw a simple sign today at Office Max, “Work hard, and stay humble” it said.

So, where does this leave me right now? What can I do now? I am certain of one thing, I can battle, even in the smallest way, to create situations that didn’t exist before, or straighten up a  messy room, that had I not existed, and done the work, it would have remained messy and unordered (and a physical hazard to anyone who would want or had to, visit me). So, I would like to, every day, start very, very, small. To finish each day with having done at minimum, however small, ONE THING with the human existence I’ve been blessed to experience, to create, to organize, to clean, to learn, to study a new subject, learn a new foreign language word (even ONE word!), so that at the end of each day, I will be better for it, and I commit this plan to the LORD. Hopefully, after some discipline sets in from even one simple or little thing accomplished each day, I’ll catch on and realize how much more potential each day has in store, LORD willing, for I’m sure a day can have realized, much more than one simple new accomplishment aforementioned!

~Paul Hart~ Thursday, June 15, 2017