Knowing What Right Looks Like

For the next several weeks I will be away at a military school and many of the things I write about will be because of something I have learned from my fellow classmates. Since we just finished up our first week I have not been writing very much. I have been busy with my education here and that takes time, effort and a certain mindset. I spoke with Sarah about this a few days ago, apologizing for not giving her the focus that she deserves from me but I have had to go into Army training mode which means that I have to be focused on learning what right looks like.

What does that mean? There are many things in the Army that I have had to explain over the years especially when I use one of the acronyms that we use. I have been in many conversations where I have been asked to stop speaking in code because they have no idea what I said. Something like “After we finished PT this morning I went to the DFAC for some chow. Then I changed in to my BDU's and went to class where we studied DADT and then moved to AR 670-1 to discuss regs on wear and appearance of the uniform. Afterwards we went out for some Land Nav and closed out the day with PRT and MRE’s.

I know that some of that makes absolutely no sense to most people but when I say that we are studying what “right looks like” it is just that. We are learning what the military says is right and what the rules are. When we leave here we need to know the correct way to do things and when they are altered or need to be altered we can do that and still know what the correct way to do something.

Why am I bringing this up?  Well, it made me think of my Christian walk and knowing what right looks like. When I went to seminary I learned what right looked like. It was the time that I devoted to getting the base information for being a minister. It also reminded me about the base ideas of what it means to be a Christian. There are some decisions that I still must make as a Christian, things that I did not study in seminary but because of the things that I learned in seminary I know how to find the right answers and I know what right looks like according to scripture.

There are times when we all need to get in “army mode” when it comes to our Christian walk. Maybe we have slowly faded away from what right looks like and we need to get back in the mode of just finding our base again, finding what right looks like. Maybe we need to take the time to look deep into our actions, reactions, motives, speech, attitudes, etc… and compare it to our base knowledge. It may mean taking some time to be distant from family and friends maybe even from the trappings of everyday life and go back to the basics and study long and hard. I am not saying leave everything behind and start from scratch or get so deep in thought that we neglect our families and friends, but get in a place for a short time to not be distracted from what we need to be learning.

Just a thought.

PS I will try to write more often but with our school schedule it is a little more difficult. I have some more thoughts to put down so please keep looking.