Came home an hour early to an empty house. I like the quiet. I can even see out the window and know when the van full of Souza's are heading this way. I have no excuse for dropping a line on the grace blog, so here goes.
Sometimes, often, I come home exhausted--physically and emotionally. I've got enough to be around the family in a meaningful way, but thats it. That is why I've been lax in blogging and calling mom.
Today I counseled a soldier who was absolutely despondent about his likely divorce. I could do nothing to help him. He left my office as miserable as he entered. I felt somewhat useless as I watched him go. Sometimes, often, we need to trust that God is capable enough to handle situations without our help. The soldier had no spiritual background and wasn't open to hearing a sermon with a salvation message. He did allow me to pray over him. This is the second time in two days I've had tough soldiers weep in my office as we prayed together. It makes me believe even more that the presence of the Holy Spirit is strong when we pray.
Next week our battalion goes out for a field exercise. I'll be out there all week camping and learning all about the chemical\biological\nuclear operations that go on in warfare. I'm kinda dreading it and looking forward to it at the same time. I'll be conducting a field service next Wednesday which will include a mini sermon. Looking forward to it. Still in the pray/seek mode, but I might preach on the passage about Jesus, the coin and "render to Caeasar" stay tuned for details.
The Army throws around the term "spiritual fitness" a lot. If the chaplain is gonna be relevant, he needs to figure out what spiritual fitness is and how to implement it into the soldiers lives. I need to find out how God wants ME to do just that.
Here comes the Souza van. From quiet to chaos in 5 seconds. Can't wait to see them.
5-4-3-2-1.........
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
4 day weekend
One of the fringe benefits of the Army is the 4 day weekends. Every holiday that produces a three day weekend in the civilian world, produces a 4 day weekend in the army--meaning we get Friday and Monday off. I am in the middle of one of those right now. Kinda nice.
Work has been going good, though it sometimes seems like I'm not doing a whole lot. I'll spend a good chunk of every day walking around and visiting soldiers and having small talk. It's all about establishing relationship and letting the troops know that they have a place they can go, even if they don't need to go there at the moment.
One thing I do need to do is to put a list of classes together to at least offer to the company commanders. I will put it out there and let them choose what they think will best help their soldiers. Some things on the list will be high-maintainance relationships, conflict, pornography, love languages (relationship issues are big here), and the morality of killing. I'm not quite ready to teach that class yet, but I feel it is an important issue for soldiers to wrestle with. I'm of the camp that believes that this unresolved issue produces much inner struggle (PTSD) in soldiers as they come home from war.
I also need to plan a marriage retreat and bible study and prayer breakfast. And also services while we are out "in the field" from Nov. 2-6.
Self-disclosure time: I'm kinda nervous about planning all the above. Not because I don't think I can do it or that I'll suck cause I know I won't. I'm nervous about planning something and having bad turnout, like no one showing up. That would seriously bum me out. I'm having flashbacks now........ Whatever, gotta do it anyway.
I preached this morning at the Killeen Salvation Army. I met the head officer this week at the garrison chaplains office and he invited me on the spot. It was a great experience and i was glad to be preaching again. I was rather unfocused and was less than stellar. I actually felt like I did not have a word from the Lord, which probably became evident. I prayed tonight that God would speak to me "like He used to". But now I'm like, was that a good prayer? As my kids grow, I change the way I speak to them. I don't speak to Emily the same way I speak to Ally. Perhaps I'm moving to a different place with God and He's chosing to alter His delivery. I don't know fer sure. What I do know is that I am not studying Gods word the same way I used to as a pastor. I'm reading, but not studying, theres a big difference. God used to speak to me about a passage after I read it 100 times and meditated on it a day or so. Now I'm reading it devotionally and it's not the same...........God is faithful and we are only taking the first steps on this leg of the journey so I'm not overly anxious. By the way, I preached on Moses.
I'm sad because both the sox and pats lost tough games today. Amazing how that can affect your mood. I hope to be able to actually watch a game this year. Itll be a treat.
gotta run, well not really but time to move on for now....
grace & blessings......
Work has been going good, though it sometimes seems like I'm not doing a whole lot. I'll spend a good chunk of every day walking around and visiting soldiers and having small talk. It's all about establishing relationship and letting the troops know that they have a place they can go, even if they don't need to go there at the moment.
One thing I do need to do is to put a list of classes together to at least offer to the company commanders. I will put it out there and let them choose what they think will best help their soldiers. Some things on the list will be high-maintainance relationships, conflict, pornography, love languages (relationship issues are big here), and the morality of killing. I'm not quite ready to teach that class yet, but I feel it is an important issue for soldiers to wrestle with. I'm of the camp that believes that this unresolved issue produces much inner struggle (PTSD) in soldiers as they come home from war.
I also need to plan a marriage retreat and bible study and prayer breakfast. And also services while we are out "in the field" from Nov. 2-6.
Self-disclosure time: I'm kinda nervous about planning all the above. Not because I don't think I can do it or that I'll suck cause I know I won't. I'm nervous about planning something and having bad turnout, like no one showing up. That would seriously bum me out. I'm having flashbacks now........ Whatever, gotta do it anyway.
I preached this morning at the Killeen Salvation Army. I met the head officer this week at the garrison chaplains office and he invited me on the spot. It was a great experience and i was glad to be preaching again. I was rather unfocused and was less than stellar. I actually felt like I did not have a word from the Lord, which probably became evident. I prayed tonight that God would speak to me "like He used to". But now I'm like, was that a good prayer? As my kids grow, I change the way I speak to them. I don't speak to Emily the same way I speak to Ally. Perhaps I'm moving to a different place with God and He's chosing to alter His delivery. I don't know fer sure. What I do know is that I am not studying Gods word the same way I used to as a pastor. I'm reading, but not studying, theres a big difference. God used to speak to me about a passage after I read it 100 times and meditated on it a day or so. Now I'm reading it devotionally and it's not the same...........God is faithful and we are only taking the first steps on this leg of the journey so I'm not overly anxious. By the way, I preached on Moses.
I'm sad because both the sox and pats lost tough games today. Amazing how that can affect your mood. I hope to be able to actually watch a game this year. Itll be a treat.
gotta run, well not really but time to move on for now....
grace & blessings......
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