Milestones
Ok so this last Saturday, the 17th of September was my 14 year anniversary of entering into military service. The 11th of September was the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Two Towers and Pentagon. 28 July was the 10th anniversary of the day that I married the most wonderful person in the world. June 11th 2011 was the day that I gave my life to Christ and God. All these events in my life were decisions that I made that define the man I have become today, I also truly believe that they are decisions that were joined within themselves. I believe that without any specific decision made I would not be in the place I am today.
I joined the military late in life on 17 September 1997 after losing my job as a Paramedic. I had a wife and child and needed work to support them. My initial reason for joining the military was not out of a duty filled obligation that I might have felt for my country. The recruitment process was easy and I was enlisted into the Infantry in a few short days. What I received from this decision in my life was a sound work ethic, discipline, and a sense of love for my country that I did not have at that time in my life. I was also in a environment that I was enjoying and a job that I loved as well as the people associated with that job. Through this decision to join the military I had the opportunity to experience my first divorce but was able to take from that marriage a good friend who is now more like a family member and my oldest son Colby. I was able to meet the most wonderful person in the world, my wife Shannon. After only a short time of dating we got married and shortly starting popping out children like it was going out of style.
The events of September 11th 2001 changes mine and my family’s life forever as it did for so many people living in this country. I was no longer in a army that was operating during peace time, I was suddenly thrown into the real possibility that I could be put into harm’s way and possibly never see my family again. I was married just over a year to Shannon and we had one child already and another on the way. I spent 2 more years in Germany after the attacks, but as soon as the time for me to leave Germany came, I had volunteered to go to a unit I knew was deploying to Iraq. Just like all the other Soldiers of this time frame I had this insane urge to serve my country in the best way that you could and that was in a war zone, I made this decision without telling my wife and when it came down to it, I lied to her by telling her that the Army had made its decision to send me to the unit I was going to. I wasn’t until after my tour in Iraq that I actually let her know that I had volunteered to go. This decision that I made was a life altering experience, you can never truly prepare for war and what you might have to do or what you will see and who you will lose. I came back from Iraq a different person with a different outlook on the world, started drinking a little more that I had already been, and distancing myself from my family. My family and I picked up again from Washington and moved back to Germany with the unit I was with. We got to Germany and within a year I was back on deployment orders. This was not something we had expected and I found myself going to war again but this time for 15 months. It finally hit me that in a 4 year period I was gone for 27 months and missing my children growing up and time with my wife. In October of 2010 I was medically retired from the Army and we settled down in Louisiana.
After 36 years of fighting the fight within myself, my lovely wife led me to the Church. Sure we had gone before and I wasn’t really into it. Then I met my Family at First Baptist Rosepine. Right from the beginning my wife and I knew that this place was different. I found myself and my family immediately accepted into this community and in a very short succession I found myself on my face giving myself to Christ and the Lord. On 11 June 2011 I was forgiven by Christ and the Lord for my sins and I vowed to live my life for the glory of God. Since this time my wife and I have dedicated and built our family around the Church and God. There is nothing that we do that does not involve the Lord. We shape our lives and our time around the Church and have volunteered everything and every moment we have to helping to build up the Church and its body.
You see, if I hadn’t made the decision to join the military I would not have met my wife. I would not have experienced the war, would not have ever came to Louisiana, would never have met my Church family, and probably would never have found my Salvation. I believe now that God had a plan for me through all this and was helping to guide me in the decisions that I made. Even more now, I know that God is guiding me as I start my journey into becoming a Pastor hopefully. I begin school in under a month and I can’t wait to begin. The excitement and spiritual completeness I feel is something I don’t ever want to lose. So if you are in a bad place, or you think that you might have made a bad decision, look back to all the decisions you made to get you to where you are. Are these decisions all linked in some way. I bet if you look hard enough you will figure out that they are. God Bless and thank you for reading.
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