Soldiers, Farmers, Atheletes...and Memories of "Operation Desert Storm"

Yesterday, I was at Campus for Christ (C4C) at SFU's Year-End Banquet with many of my close friends whom I have known over the last couple of years while doing my Master's degree. While a sem-formal dress code has generally been the norm for this event, this year was a costume dress code of soldiers, farmers and athletes, based on the corresponding verses from Paul's second letter to Timothy in the Bible:

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athelete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard working-farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." (2 Tim 2: 3-6, ESV)

All of my friends came dressed very fittingly, and some of them who dressed as farmers looked very pretty in their outfits! I had chosen to dress up as a soldier as best as I could, although I'm not sure if I did a very good job of it. Among the things I'd used for my costume were a pair of outdoor boots with a camouflauged pattern on them, and a borrowed BB gun that was a replica of an M14, made mostly of metal and quite heavy. While the dinner was a really fun event, after it was over it gave me some cause for serious reflection on what it takes to be a soldier, particularly in the context of my childhood memories of the First Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm [1].

Operation Desert Shield, followed by Operation Desert Storm, began shortly after my 9th birthday. My parents and I were living in the Middle East at the time, in a very well-known coastal city that was not very far from the conflict. I vividly remember feeling a palpable feeling of tension in the air, amongst our family friends and my classmates in school, as they worried over what would happen if the fighting in Iraq and Kuwait spread down through the region to the country in which we were living. My mother had recently become pregant with my sister at the time, and I used to watch the news on television with her in our family living room during the course of the war, sometimes for several hours throughout the day. We sat and watched in silence the footage of the day and night bombing campaigns on Baghdad, tanks moving across the desert as the Coalition's armored column fought in the intense desert heat, missiles being loaded on aircraft at allied bases and aircraft carriers, shells fired from destroyers, Iraqi Scud missiles landing on Tel Aviv, and everything else that occurred during the course of those tense 7 months, which are too many to type here. It was a strange feeling to experience as a child, knowing that all of that was happening not very far up the coast from where we lived. During that time, my mother accumulated a massive pile of newspaper clippings covering the conflict from start to finish, which she later gave to me and I still keep carefully today. I remember helping her store water in large buckets at home, as well as stocking up on food in case the food supply at the supermarkets was rationed or cut short during that time.

Yesterday, as I recalled and reflected those memories and more of many years ago, I was suddenly reminded of a special issue of Newsweek magazine that I had preserved from two years ago. It was titled 'Voices of the Fallen: The Iraq War in The Words of America's Dead" [2]. Related to the events of the more recent military campaign in Iraq, the entire issue was exclusively dedicated to a much more personal and deeply moving aspect - the excerpts from the personal journals of the men and women soldiers who had died in combat there. I found the magazine today morning, and took a photo of the magazine cover, which I have posted below.

The section in that issue that I was reminded of in connection with my costume and the verses of 2 Timothy 2:3-6 was called 'Last Letters', and titled 'If you're reading this...'. It began with the following opening paragraph:

"Combat troops live everyday with the specter of their mortality. Ususlly, they ignore it and do their jobs. But at some point, heading for a war zone or shaken by a close call, many of them write letters to be read only if they don't make it home alive. They want to convey the things that matter to the people they love the most, putting their hopes and thanks and blessings on paper. Each of these letters was left behind by an American who gave his life in Iraq."

There was a letter amongst the many photographed and printed in that section that had made a deep impression when I first read that issue. It was the last letter to his family written by Corporal Steven Gill, an American marine who was also a Christian, and brought me to tears once more as I read it today morning. I have taken a photograph of that too. Since the print may be a little difficult to read, I have typed out the contents of that letter below:

"Dear Mom, Dad and James.

If you are reading this, you will know that I am no longer here with y'all and that I am at a better place than all of us. I have been brought up in a loving Christian family that I thank God for everyday. I was taught to fear and love God and to rejoice in the knowledge that his Son paid for all of my horrible sins that I have committed in my 24 years on this great planet. Up until this time I have led an adventurous life that hasn't been perfect. For the anger and tears that have been caused and shed on my behalf, I ask for all of your forgiveness. Know that I wish I could have done better but I've cherished all my time with you all.

To my only Brother James - I love you James, even if I showed in a way that was sometimes hard to tell. I know that one day you will find a good Godly girl to marry and take care of. I wish I could been there as your best man. Know that the Lord loves you James, and when you seek Him, you will find Him, and His peace.

I know you are still searching James, but when you find that Peace, the answers that you still seek will fall into place. Go in that direction. JAMES that is my prayer. I love you BRO.

To My DAD. What can I say, you are the Man I've always wanted to be and hopefully to become. You have given me a life that could only have hoped to have given to a wife and kids. If you look deep into your heart Dad, all the good qualities you see, know that you passed them on to me. If in the future someone asks you what your son was like, tell 'em "He was just like his old Mn" and I'll smile down from Heaven and be proud. I love you Dad.

And finally to My Mom. A mother's love cannot be described, it can only be felt. It is peace, it is security, it is the warmth of arms wrapped around you and the knowledge that no matter what, all will be right in the world as long as my Mom is holding me. I wish I could have felt that one more time. You are a Godly woman mom, no son could have asked for or received a better woman. An angel sent down from heaven. I love you Mom.

Well that's about it guys. As for the WAR we've fought the good fight and I guess it was my time. If anyone should ask what happened, you tell 'em that your son didn't die doing what he loved, but doing what he thought was right. That America is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and it wasn't going to change. Not on my watch. All I can ask now is that when I get to Heaven the Good Lord will greet me with open arms and say "Well done, good and faithful servant!" Rest easy and be at peace, for I will see ALL of you there in the future.

All of my love.

Your Son,

Steve."

The postscript to this letter said: Cpl Steven Gill, Round Rock, Texas, 24. He once aspired to be a minister, but after 9/11 he wanted only to join the Marines. He arrived in Iraq on his first tour of duty in March 2005. On July 21 he was killed by an IED near the village of Zaidan, southeast of Fallujah.

As I type this out in sober silence, I am deeply thankful to the men and women who gave their lives during the course of Operation Desert Storm. Because of them, my family and I are alive today in a different part of the world. My sister is particularly special to me in this regard. As God would have it, she was born on Palm Sunday of 1991, almost exactly one month after the end of the First Gulf War, and one week before Easter Sunday. Fittingly, my mother wanted to give her a name that was connected to Easter, and chose two Russian names: 'Tiffany', derived from 'Teofania Anastasia', meaning 'manifestation of God' and 'Tanya', meaning 'Resurrection'.

In the verse thast was the theme of this year's C4C Year-End Banquet, the Apostle Paul wrote "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." In a talk that he gave there, John Hau our Campus Director challenged us to think over the things that might cause us to waste our summer. I think over this last semester of my Master's program, God has been doing some awesome things and shaping some very strong convictions in who I want to be and what my priorities are. I hope that this coming summer time, I will share in Christ's suffering and and please Him who has called me.

To those who read this, I would be interested in knowing - what does it mean to you to be a soldier, farmer or athelete in the context that Paul writes to Timothy? What is important to you? What would you be willing to pour out your life for?

- The Wisdom Seeker.

REFERENCES:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Storm#Air_campaign
[2] Newsweek Magazine, April 2nd, 2007

"Hot Gospel"

Today being Good Friday, I went to the 11 AM service at Willingdon Church [1] with a number of my close friends. The service was profoundly moving from start to finish. Among the elements of the service, there were two that riveted my attention. The first was a compelling video narrative, tracing the events of the gospel narrative covering last week of Christ, from Palm Sunday to the crucifixion. The second was a short sermon given by Pastor John Neufeld, about the importance of Good Friday, particularly in light of the reality and horror of human sin in the sight of God. It was while speaking on this that he used an analogy that gave me great cause for reflection.

Referring to the increasing appetite in North America for Mexican food, particularly salsa, he cited a few articles and examples talking about how processed "mexican" food products being sold had been heavily watered down or modified in terms of their spice content. The reason given for this was that North Americans did not have a preference for the level of culinary spice that was the norm in Mexico. Pastor John then delivered a riveting closure to the analogy, talking about how many people preferred a "watered down" version of the gospel, because the intensity of the truth within its message was too uncomfortable to handle. The fact, he said was that this "hot gospel" was the only acceptable one in the sight of God, and "...it is the only thing that can save you."

As I'm writing this, it's been four hours since that service got over; the words of his sermon are still pounding in my head. This is what the reality of the human condition reduces to - though the burning of the "hot gospel" is intense in its revelation of the depravity of our sin, it is our only hope for any rescue from ourselves, as we look in the "mirror" of God's Word and realise the horror of who we are without Him. As I write this, I am reminded of the words of a beautiful song by a Christian artist that attracted my attention many years ago, which are so apt to the event that I remember today. These are some of the lyrics of "Baptise Me" [2], by Jaci Velazquez:

In the desert of my shame
I have found myself to blame
Now I thirst for innocence
And your blood is there to quench
Pour your life into my soul
Let the cleansing waters flow
Make me as white as snow

Chorus:
Hear me as I pray
Wash my sins away
Drown me in Your grace
Baptize me
As my lips confess
Fill this emptiness
With your holiness
Baptize me

Touch my eyes and give me sight
Father bathe me in Your light
At your feet I'll always be
Until the day Your face I see
Let Your words consume my heart
Lead me to the deepest part
And the healing starts

Some time ago, the SFU Skeptics Club had designed and erected a banner that currently hangs opposite the W. A. C Bennet Library on the SFU Burnaby campus. It read: "There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life!" For the longest time, I had thought of what a banner with a Christian counterperspective might look like. Something witty, dry, yet thought-provoking, perhaps? Many posibilities had run through my mind. Today, however, I came to the conclusion that ultimately, the most fitting and thought-provoking reply that I could put on a banner to any challenge by skeptic, atheist and agnostic alike is nothing other than the word of God in His "Hot Gospel". It is not watered down in any way, and is delivered in the most honest and authentic manner possible:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

(John 3:16-20, ESV)

This Good Friday, it is my desire before my Lord and Saviour that I live my life before all the world, in a manner worthy of a testimony to the power of His "Hot Gospel."

- The Wisdom Seeker

[1] http://willingdon.org/

God Retaliates

Yesterday, I finished watching the 1977 TV mini-series 'Jesus of Nazareth' [1], directed by Franco Zefirelli. I had started watching the first of four parts sometime in December before Christmas, and watched it in installments since then. It brought back a lot of memories of childhood; if I remember correctly, I'd first watched it sometime before the age of 10. Perhaps for that sentimental reason, it will remain in my opinion the best depiction of the gospel narrative on film, although there are other reasons as to why I believe it to be so. But more than these, it brought to mind some thoughts I'd had during an informal bible study with friends at Campus for Christ's Western Winter Conference in Vancouver during the last week of 2009.

At one point in the study, we were looking at the passage of Matthew 6 : 38-42, and thinking about the practical implications of Christ's famous instruction to 'turn the other cheek' and other things concerning retaliation in this passage. What did it mean for everyday life and situations in occasions where others had wronged us, physically or otherwise? Though I don't think I contributed anything much to the discussion at the time and mostly listened to what others had to say, some thoughts did occur to me later on, and were evoked again yesterday.

This little section occurs in the context of the greatest sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount. Following His teaching on oaths and prior to His instruction on giving to those who are in need, Jesus speaks a few sentences on retaliation that have created tremendous controversy in their interpretation, as with everything else that He said and did. As I glanced over Matthew's recording of Jesus' flow of thought in the sections preceding and succeeding this little section, there seemed to be a most interesting pattern emerging.

As Christ speaks on how He has come to fulfil, not abolish the Law, He concludes with the sentence "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 6 : 17-20, ESV). He then launches into a series of thoughts on anger, lust, divorce, oaths and finally retaliation and the treatment of one's enemies, each marked with a variation of the phrase 'You have heard that it was said...' With each section that He addresses, He raises the standard of conduct to a seemingly impossible level. It seemed interesting to me that He should conclude these with the matter of violence, retaliation and responding to one's enemies. Might there be a reason for that? If so, what could it be?

Christ begins His sequence of thoughts in Matthew 6 : 38-42 with a reference to the statements of the Mosaic Law in Ex. 21:24, Lev. 24:20 and Deut 19:21. As He then raises the bar, He speaks of a retaliation to the perpetration of physical violence, confiscation of clothing and the forced bearing of someone else's burden for more than the required distance. Though He could have used any other series of illustrations, I found it extremely significant that He selects these in particular. It suddenly occured to me that the specific actions that Christ was listing were mirrored exactly in the same order in His passion and crucifixion; His whipping and beating (Matt. 26:67-68, 27:26, Mark 14:65, 15:15, Luke 22:63-64, John 18:22), the confiscation of His clothes (Matt. 27:28, Mark 15:17, John 19:2) and the forced carrying of His cross to Calvary (Matt. 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26, John 19:17). In addition, Jesus' instruction of loving one's enemies in the following verses (Matt. 6:43-45) are also exactly mirrored in sequence on the cross, as he prays "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34).

As I continued to reflect on this incredible correlation, I came back to the matter of why Christ might have intentionally ended with retaliation to violence and loving one's enemies. Within the massive spectrum of edicts beginning with 'You shall not...' that could be issued by God or anyone else, I think the denial of retaliating in kind to the violation or desecration of one's body, possessions or rights by someone else is the hardest to comprehend, let alone live out. I can imagine the incredulousness, if not anger, building up in those hearing these words, for Jersualem and all Israel was under the domination of Roman rule at the time. One could somehow stomach the decree of an impossibly high standard of conduct on every other issue - their anger; lust; greed; pride; divorcing a spouse they bitterly regret having married; the words itching to come off their tounge. This however, seems too much to bear. Someone has violated my body and inflicted some manner of indignity upon it; something precious to me has been taken away or destroyed; my rights have been violated by an imposition demanding that I do something, for someone I have no desire to serve. Millenia later, those words and their implications fly in the face of all reason and emotion; one's immediate instinct is to jump up, shake one's fist at God and shout 'How dare You say such a thing!'

And yet, of all the beings in existence, does God not have the most reason and highest prerogative to retaliate? He who abhors any form of evil, should He not conduct a massive slaughter on a spectrum from individuals to entire nations for all that they perpetrate upon one another? As expressed by Robert Burns, 'Man's inhumanity to man'[2] is one of the most verifiable features of our existence. In saying these words, Christ set the bar to such an impossible height that the only one who could even dare to attempt to meet it was Himself. He essentially issued a prophecy pointing to His cross as the real-life demonstration of this command. In the manner of a true leader, He led from the front and not from behind a desk, by being the first down the road in carrying out His own order. And in the counterperspective of Jesus Christ, God retaliates in a form that defies any and all human thinking; in a shocking turning of the tables, He releases in one mighty deluge the full fury of His anger and disgust for all of mankind's violations upon ...Himself.

It is no wonder then, that the Bible is authoritative in describing the power of the cross in its destruction of sin, Satan, death and their hold over everything in this world. As Paul wrote in his epistle to the Colossians:

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." (Colossians 2 : 13-15, ESV)

REFERENCES:

[1] Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
[2] Man's Inhumanity to Man