Welcome to another week of our Everyday Jesus link-up. Be sure to link-up below this post, comment on your neighbor’s blog and share with your friends… Because Jesus is everywhere, every day!
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I know I have said it before and I will say it again… Sometimes Jesus just totally knocks my socks off.
You might recall that a few months back, my Beloved Army infantry husband left for Ranger School.
For those of you not on this crazy roller coaster ride we call army life, Ranger School is intense. It is a 64 day experience of little food, little sleep and a lot of unknowns.
Nothing is guaranteed in Ranger School. Really, anything can happen. Men get hurt, recycled, and dropped all the time. Oh, and did I mention that communication is practically zero, minus (maybe) one short phone call about every 3 weeks at the end of each phase and a tiny handful of snail mail letters?
I don’t say all of this to stir up strife or pity. Instead, I say these things to showcase God’s faithfulness.
You might remember that before Brandon departed for this school, we were both at peace. (Note: Peace is not interchangeable with “excited.”) We were certain that God would meet ALL of our needs in Christ Jesus.
Three years ago almost to the day we attempted Ranger school for our OWN reasons: Pride, career advancement, etc. We didn’t go for the Lord.
While it was certainly something we needed to experience, those three weeks before my husband dropped to come home during my miscarriage were absolute zero fun. It was heartbreaking. So you might imagine why we need to seriously root ourselves in Christ before this attempt.
We trusted God. And friends, did He deliver!!!
A U.S. Army Ranger’s motto is “Rangers Lead the Way!”
But my husband and I tweaked it a bit: #JLTW… JESUS LEAD THE WAY!
And lead the way He did.
It is impossible to share how Christ showed up in our everydays during our time apart. For me, He transformed my heart. Now that my husband has returned, I feel like a new woman. One that stresses less, blesses more. Gives more grace than grief. And has a renewed appreciation first and foremost for God’s faithfulness and secondly for the beauty/joy of marriage, motherhood and ministry.
My prayer was that God would transform me so profoundly that my sleep-deprived husband would be able to tell the difference. Just a few days after his return, he looked into my eyes and said with a sleepy smile: “Who are you and what have you done to my wife?”
I call that a serious spiritual victory.
On Brandon’s end, he said he saw God show up in profound ways during each of the three phase of Ranger School. He knew a ranger instructor in each phase from previous army experience. God gave him little snippets of confidence and peace when he ventured out to do his graded patrols that would determine if/when he would graduate.
God gave my husband a peace that truly passed understanding. A peace that other soldiers in his class witnessed and wanted to know just where it was coming from.
Jesus led the way for my Beloved to share the gospel with his battle buddies.
329 soldiers started in Ranger School Class 04-15. Just 102 graduated (and that includes 73 soldiers that had been recycled at least once before and started in other classes.) Out of the 102 graduates, only 29 went straight through with no recycles (my husband being one of them– thank you Lord!)
But the numbers that really matter are ones that can’t be measured during a graduation ceremony. We will never know the number of seeds the Lord planted through our experience with Ranger School.
In this life, we won’t probably won’t see a majority of the fruit that results from our Ranger School experience. But we did witness more of His faithfulness than we ever dreamed, asked or imagined. His faithfulness brought me to my knees more times than I can count.
Friends, it was a hard experience. It was a trial. But He was with us in our everyday and changed that trial into a triumph that we never anticipated.
That Ranger Tab, although a huge honor within our called profession, will eventually pass away. But the gospel of Christ stands forever.
#JLTW
He is Always Faithful,
“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.” ~Philippians 1:12 NIV
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