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Good Soldiers


Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer (II Timothy 2:3-4) 

          After a friend’s grandson joined the military, she told me her daughter had been advised to never write about any problems going on at home. Letters should all be positive. I have some issues with the notion that families are to lie to their soldiers and I don’t think the soldiers are so foolish as to always believe everything’s fine. It seems to me the question of “What’s really going on?” would eat at their minds. At the same time, I understand completely. Lives depend on a soldier having his mind on his job, not on his family.
          Similarly, if one joins the military, one leaves home for basic training or boot camp, or whatever the branch of the military calls it. These training times are designed not only to physically prepare the soldier, but to break the soldier down as a person and rebuild them as a soldier. It’s a form of brainwashing done because lives depend on the soldier being loyal and obedient. When one joins the military, any idea that one gets to live a cushy, self-indulgent life gets crushed, or one gets sent home as a failure.
         In today’s passage, Paul calls on Timothy to be a soldier. Sometimes, the hardship a soldier faces was from an enemy. Sometimes, the hardship a soldier faces is from his commander, who is preparing the soldier to not only face an enemy, but to emerge victorious. Praise the Lord

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