So, as all of you know by now, I'm in ROTC. I was working out with the Ranger Challenge group this morning. We were practicing what was known as a "trauma lane", or at the very least, we practiced carrying someone in a gurney. I can't remember the exact acronym for it, but that's besides the point(gah! I've probably learned around 500 acronyms in the past month for ROTC alone.)! When we ran back to the ROTC hall, we found that the sprinklers had come on and were now watering the slightly sloping hill in front of the building. Our sergeant told us we would be doing pull-ups on the bars right in front of the ROTC hall, which, conveniently, one of the sprinkler heads went right along as it sprayed the yard. So, we did our sets of pull-ups and then, before he let us go, we had to do sit-ups on the incline of the hill with the sprinklers spraying all over us. After that was done, the sergeant got us back into formation and we all stood at ease while he talked to us about the upcoming FTX and other various news we needed.
All of a sudden, one of the sprinkler heads near the ends of the ranks we were standing turned onto us, soaking me and the two or three people in front of and next to me. Now, here's the kicker, we all stood there, waiting for the sprinkler to move around us. Some of us put our hands down to block the stream, but we didn't move out of the way, at least, not to the point where we moved out of our position in the formation. Heck, the first time that water smacked into me(I ended up being the first one hit with it), I simply waited for it to go by, taking a nice line of water right across my chest.
Some of the cadre and other cadet officers were standing off to the side, and right before we got dismissed, one of them called out to me. "Why aren't you guys moving out of the way of the water?" To which most of us had no answer. Then, the cadre that was there turned to the cadet and said simply," they've got good dedication."
I was a bit surprised by this. I hadn't thought of it as dedication. I hadn't really thought of much of anything at all. All that I knew was that while I was in formation, I needed to do what I was told and listen to my sergeant and what he had to say. The water was an annoyance, but I ignored it to listen to him.
This is the same way we need to be when we talk with God. We have to be dedicated to him without realizing it. We have to be able to stand there and focus on Him and what he has to say and do what he tells us to do even if we have storms in our lives or if we're getting pelted with water or any other sort of attack. We have to be able to stand strong and take whatever's thrown at us, look it in the face, and let it pass by us. It's only when we have that kind of dedication to God that we can truly quiet ourselves and listen for his still-small voice and be able to pick it out over our own thoughts and the noise around us.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Giving your life for another
Hello Everyone!
This is my first blogging experience and I'm rather new with it, so if I mess up somewhere along the lines, please forgive me.
So, what does it mean to you to sacrifice yourself? What does it mean when someone is selfless? When they give of themselves without looking for anything in return? What does this mean to us when someone selflessly helps us? Whether it's a police officer, fireman, paramedic, or any of a hundred others who we see in our day to day lives, whether it's the next door neighbor or the man that jogs by your home every morning before the sun's even come out. How can we be selfless without realizing it? Why do we get a flood of warmth in our hearts when someone says we have a servant's heart or thank us for doing something for them?
I'm looking down at my hands right now and the skin's already starting to peel a bit from PT this morning. There are quite a few things in my life that I can't quite explain how or why I do them, like PT. I get up early in the morning, typically around 0500, don my PT gear and go running over to the ROTC building for an hour and a half of push-ups, sit-ups, running, and several other exercises whose names I can't remember, before trudging off exhausted to get a shower and get to class. I've had several people stare at me surprised when I explain this to them. They're amazed at the fact that I can even be up that early, and voluntarily no less.
Let me ask again, what makes someone selfless?
I've been told on several occasions that I have a servant's heart. I do the right thing without thinking about it. I subconsciously help people. Though, it isn't quite me that's helping others. I can't claim the servant's heart that I have as my own, since it was given to me. That subconscious desire to help those in need is a gift that I have been entrusted with from God. To truly have happiness, the glory must be given up to Him. There's no other way for our lives to work. We can take our lives into our hands for a few moments, but we inevitably fall back into our own sins and the ways of the world. We stand back up and push through again and again, but God is standing beside us, trying to point the way around the wall we've found ourselves in front of.
God is the reason that I have the strength and will and servant's heart that I do. It is because of Him that I can live and with that realization I see that my life is not my own. To be a servant is to give of yourself completely and wholly and to not expect or demand anything in return. Think of all the times when you've gone to work for someone, and when you were done with whatever it was, be it yardwork, helping in their garage, anything, and you were tired, sweaty and worn out. Now, imagine that you never got thanks for any of it. The person you were helping walked out their door, glanced at what you'd done, shrugged, and turned back inside and locked their door. They didn't invite you in, they didn't thank you, they didn't offer you anything to drink, they completely ignored what you had done. What would you do? Would you get mad? Angry? Furious? Would you turn home defeated? Would you shrug it off and go do something for yourself? Would you complain? What would you do in that situation?
Being a servant is having that happen, and still being joyful. Now, that's not to say that you're happy and ecstatic that someone just slammed their door in your face, but it's more that you are able to move beyond it. You pull yourself out of your situation and look at what you've done for this person. You realize that there is more than just you and more than just them. You catch a glimpse of that bigger picture, and you're content in your situation.
This is what I want to be able to do. I'm still working on being able to pull myself away from me. To get out of my comfort zone and move beyond who I think I am and become who God has made me to be. It's only when we give everything up to Him, understanding it might not come back, that we may lose everything, and we're faced with our own mortality, the fact that we are here for just a blip of time. I want to be able to leave myself behind and ignore myself in order to serve others. That is my reason for deciding to join the military and defend freedom for those around me. It's why I am standing up, it's the one thing that I strive for and that keeps me going. I want to be a true servant, to have selflessness so ingrained into who I am that it happens automatically, that it becomes something I can't explain and that I can give completely to God and realize that it all comes from him. That is my one desire.
So, let me ask you. What does it mean to be a servant?
This is my first blogging experience and I'm rather new with it, so if I mess up somewhere along the lines, please forgive me.
So, what does it mean to you to sacrifice yourself? What does it mean when someone is selfless? When they give of themselves without looking for anything in return? What does this mean to us when someone selflessly helps us? Whether it's a police officer, fireman, paramedic, or any of a hundred others who we see in our day to day lives, whether it's the next door neighbor or the man that jogs by your home every morning before the sun's even come out. How can we be selfless without realizing it? Why do we get a flood of warmth in our hearts when someone says we have a servant's heart or thank us for doing something for them?
I'm looking down at my hands right now and the skin's already starting to peel a bit from PT this morning. There are quite a few things in my life that I can't quite explain how or why I do them, like PT. I get up early in the morning, typically around 0500, don my PT gear and go running over to the ROTC building for an hour and a half of push-ups, sit-ups, running, and several other exercises whose names I can't remember, before trudging off exhausted to get a shower and get to class. I've had several people stare at me surprised when I explain this to them. They're amazed at the fact that I can even be up that early, and voluntarily no less.
Let me ask again, what makes someone selfless?
I've been told on several occasions that I have a servant's heart. I do the right thing without thinking about it. I subconsciously help people. Though, it isn't quite me that's helping others. I can't claim the servant's heart that I have as my own, since it was given to me. That subconscious desire to help those in need is a gift that I have been entrusted with from God. To truly have happiness, the glory must be given up to Him. There's no other way for our lives to work. We can take our lives into our hands for a few moments, but we inevitably fall back into our own sins and the ways of the world. We stand back up and push through again and again, but God is standing beside us, trying to point the way around the wall we've found ourselves in front of.
God is the reason that I have the strength and will and servant's heart that I do. It is because of Him that I can live and with that realization I see that my life is not my own. To be a servant is to give of yourself completely and wholly and to not expect or demand anything in return. Think of all the times when you've gone to work for someone, and when you were done with whatever it was, be it yardwork, helping in their garage, anything, and you were tired, sweaty and worn out. Now, imagine that you never got thanks for any of it. The person you were helping walked out their door, glanced at what you'd done, shrugged, and turned back inside and locked their door. They didn't invite you in, they didn't thank you, they didn't offer you anything to drink, they completely ignored what you had done. What would you do? Would you get mad? Angry? Furious? Would you turn home defeated? Would you shrug it off and go do something for yourself? Would you complain? What would you do in that situation?
Being a servant is having that happen, and still being joyful. Now, that's not to say that you're happy and ecstatic that someone just slammed their door in your face, but it's more that you are able to move beyond it. You pull yourself out of your situation and look at what you've done for this person. You realize that there is more than just you and more than just them. You catch a glimpse of that bigger picture, and you're content in your situation.
This is what I want to be able to do. I'm still working on being able to pull myself away from me. To get out of my comfort zone and move beyond who I think I am and become who God has made me to be. It's only when we give everything up to Him, understanding it might not come back, that we may lose everything, and we're faced with our own mortality, the fact that we are here for just a blip of time. I want to be able to leave myself behind and ignore myself in order to serve others. That is my reason for deciding to join the military and defend freedom for those around me. It's why I am standing up, it's the one thing that I strive for and that keeps me going. I want to be a true servant, to have selflessness so ingrained into who I am that it happens automatically, that it becomes something I can't explain and that I can give completely to God and realize that it all comes from him. That is my one desire.
So, let me ask you. What does it mean to be a servant?
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