The experience of camaraderie in the military finds few rivals outside of the services. The tighter the unit cohesion and the shared risks endured heighten those relationship bonds.
I am fortunate to have some those rare experiences as a veteran submariner, a member of the U.S. Navy’s Silent Service. Those experiences and the friends I have made in my 6 years in the Navy have remained with me, with some rare friends who have maintained a level of trust that is unparalleled, having shared memories and faced difficulties that are as unique as they are non-public.
Shared experiences, common interests, are very important, but particularly taking on monumental tasks expected of those willing to take extraordinary risks, consisting of an enormous amount of preparation requiring an unwavering sense of devotion and commitment.
These things have helped bind people together in all kinds of work, sport, business, and study.
Commonly unheralded are the result of the daily pressures of marriage and family responsibilities.
In each of these relationships, we exert varying degrees our values. Sometimes it’s the character of those living principles that our friends and comrades resonate with. We have a sense of trust and loyalty to those who resonate with our own deeply held principles .
Yet there is nothing more eternal and blessed as a right relationship with God in His Kingdom.
As a believer in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my perspective has changed from the worldly wisdom that my earthly life was founded upon to a reality and truth bound in the immeasurable glory and beauty of the eternal and living God.
At the same time, becoming responsive to God begins to shape our thoughts and builds temperance in all areas of life. Where we may have been an un-godly arrogant fool before, we are a work in progress under the eye of a merciful God.
Being a Christian takes nothing away from the importance of \my shipmates’ experiences. In many ways the bonding and mission experience in the military was a precursor to how God would like to see his Church bond in the mission of proclaiming the gospel and of God’s glory.
It is a perspective change, a enormous perspective change.
What we experience in this life will be parabolically dwarfed by the glory (or judgment) we will experience in eternal life.
These are promises of the invisible Father who, divinely revealed through 1600 years of Bible revelation and whose Son appeared upon the earth to give testimony of who the Father is and to bring to completion, the divine plan for victory over death.
As a member of the Silence Service, we are bound to secrecy regarding the missions performed, it makes the bond of camaraderie even closer and the losses of our closest friends and shipmates even greater.
Though I find the building of Silicon Valley businesses tend to be uncovenanted secular exercises with a wide variance of team building aptitude and a necessarily uncovenant rule when it comes to work force reductions and adhering to some overreaching government policies. Nevertheless, in this environment, some relationships formed through serendipitously shared trials can form life long friendships in our advancing stages of life.
Marriage and parental responsibilities test us at the most core level. Our responses to a covenant, like the one God has with His children are tested. We see through compassion and humility, ourselves in the weaknesses of others, knowing how God must be merciful and faithful in the light of our own self centered transgressions.
In our marriage, we are more vulnerable than in any other relationship because more of our entire selves are positioned to the most exclusive influence, guide and support to our immediate relationship(s).
Where as on a battlefield, the prospects or reality of death may be faced on a daily basis, the enemy is defined. On the other hand, the worst enemy in a family relationship may be found to be ourselves. In either case, we face the challenges that every circumstance presents that build (or break) our relationships. In the best outcomes, we build camaraderie, trust, and oneness in purpose. The spiritual battles, whether in war fighting or in the home are no less lethal if they betray our trust and devotion to living God.
The prospects of death, the ever present specter, eventually makes it way into our thinking in how we conduct our deepest relations.
The greater the bond and life commitment, the more heartbreaking the loss, that is, if death is believed to be the end of life and not merely a doorway to a greater existence.
How important is sharing that understanding of death? What that bring peace to your relationship(s) if you were both or all seeking the one true God?
In many ways, sharing a common bond with a Christian is similar to serving in the military. The fundamentals are there in terms of team unity, but Christians, unlike servicemen, are not bound together to endure hardships for the sake the country or the combat unit, they are bound together, not by membership to an organization or to a country, but rather, by their vital relationship to Jesus Christ, and His body, the Church, that spans beyond congregations.
Christ is the King of kings and the Judge of all. It is He who a Christian, a follower of Christ, places his entire trust in for eternal salvation.
“Christian” in today’s culture has a very broad meaning, but we get closer to the essential when we can identify an essential dependency and trust of the Lord Jesus Christ. Obstacles to reaching warrior levels of camaraderie, there will be variances with a fellow Christian as the relationship may necessarily hinge on the essential commitment to Christ, understanding of the gospel, and involvement in the same mission field.
Seeking the truth must be directed to the eternal God who is the truth, who looks out for his children and is always victorious, is a mighty strong foundation for a vital and abiding relationship.
There are many stories of gallantry and valor in the Bible. Devotion and loyalty between warriors echo throughout eternity. David had just defeated Goliath and was introduced to King Saul and his son Jonathan, a young unselfish and valiant warrior.
Now it happened when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. – 1 Samuel 18:1
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
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3-3-24