Of Oysters and Pearls

The day has finally arriving when I must make decisions regarding my career and what I will do to pay the bills. 
Many people would like to be in my shoes right now.  I can almost choose my career thanks to the generosity of my parents paying for nearly every dime of my college education.  Unfortunately, no amount of money or education can clearly reveal God's will for my life. 
The fact of the matter is us young men, whether we all know it or not, hold a great deal of power in our hands at the green age of 20 right before entering a career.  Our choices at this time in our lives do not simply determine the destiny of ourselves.  If that was the case, our situation would be infinitely easier but instead our decisions regarding our career not only determine our destinies but ultimately the destinies of our wives, children and the generations to follow.  From what kind of home we will live in to the kind of clothes our kids will wear to whether we will be able to afford to show our love to your wives and children by providing well for them or whether we will constantly struggle to provide just the bare necessities to them. 
On our shoulders rests the well being many and heavy lies the yoke when no field is present to be plowed.

The world tells us "Go now, the world is your oyster!" but the vast majority of us have no idea how to make pearls from mere bits of sand.  Some of us have trouble even identifying the bits of sand that are worth turning into pearls.   Should we choose what whatever bit of sand happens our way?  Should we let others choose for us? Or should choose what we love? That dream you always cherished but assumed was out of reach because you couldn't afford it or everyone expected something different from you.
Again, the bucket of cold water in the face is the simple pragmatic fact that the world does not deal in happiness.  The world deals in the unforgiving dollar and whatever you choose you must choose wisely so that you can keep you and yours shod, housed and fed.

But what happens when God reminds you that what you love can be made profitable with hard work and initial sacrifice?

I say you chase it down with all you've got.  Chase that bit of sand and pray that God will grant you the ability to do all you can with it and the wisdom to know it's not your whole world.

-JD

Heroes

"Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight."

-Psalm 144:1

There is an ache in every young man's soul for war.

God designed young men to fight. Many of the greatest heroes in the Bible were fierce warriors who spent their youth in combat and among their listed virtues was their ability to destroy those they went into battle against. We have an inherent desire to defeat an enemy. The "enemy" might be an inanimate object such as land, it could be a skill such as a musical instrument or an animal that must be tamed. At any rate, whatever the "enemy" is we must master it and place it under our control. We desire to take dominion over something. It's a biblical mandate (Gen 1:26) and it's in our blood.

The peak of all dominion taking to young men is to go to war and to experience victory over forces of evil. All we have to do is look back on what individuals history has placed the most acclaim and honor. It's not the farmers or other ordinary workers throughout history who have recieved the title of hero however critical their role in civilization was. History has always chosen as mankind's ultimate hero those who fought in battle against vast odds to defend what they believed in. Every young man who has ever read of Sgt. Alvin York or listened to an old man tell a war story, hears a voice deep in his soul asking him if he has what it takes to face the enemy and the possiblity of death and yet be victorious in battle. A young man will do almost anything for the chance to fight justly against forces of evil, the chance to see whether or not he has what it takes to be like those men he read about in a history book. We've seen throughout history that young men will willingly leave peace and home behind and walk terrified off of an LCV onto a beach they know they won't ever walk off of for that chance to be a warrior in defense of what they believe in. To be like a "hero."

Just war is a high and noble calling and young men covet the chance to take part in it.

However, young men who have not experienced war firsthand do not understand the horrors of it. That is why young men still want to go to war and that is why they will continue to go to war. The emotional and psychological toll that taking another man's life will have on you does not and will not be fully understood until it has been experienced. One does not have to read very much of Psalms to see that combat took an emotional toll on King David that few can relate to. War is hated by no one more than the boy who gallantly marched off to it and returns home from hell to find a peace he could have never appreciated otherwise. He will then years later as an old man after time has dulled the pain of his memories sit on his porch and tell a kid like me, stories of how he took a grenade, threw it in the hatch of a Panzer and saved the rest of his company from certain death and destruction. Then I in turn desire the same chance to become a "hero" like him, join the army and it all starts over again.

Through the centuries society has found ways to harness this warrior drive that's built into young men into more peaceful and less destructive activities. High schools and colleges host mock battles on football fields giving young men the chance to go to war and fight for their Alma mater. These players are the warriors or "heroes" if you will of the schools they represent.

At any rate we must accept that this is the way we have been made and without some kind of competitive activity us young men get into trouble. We must have a productive avenue through which to vent that drive for domination. It may be fighting an evil regime such as Hitler's Germany or it may be simply defeating the other school's team at the Superbowl. Regardless of the avenue the need for domination exists and it must be harnessed properly or else it will lead to more Hitler's and Ted Bundy's instead of more Tim Tebow's and Alvin York's.

Now, that being said, I believe there is one thing more powerful than a young man's desire to be a hero and can make even the most war hungry young man genuinely desire peace. A girl. The right girl will bring a sudden dose of sharp perspective on life that we would otherwise never have. All of the sudden that Bradley assault vehicle driving, gun toting, order screaming kid who wanted nothing more than to go off to war and cash in a few Al Queda is now totally ok with working 9-5 in complete peace and driving a mini-van.

All of the sudden we start to see that the real un-sung hero of civilization is a faithful husband and father. He's the hero the warriors wish they were. We see that it takes more to be a him than it takes to be an Alvin York or a Tim Tebow and we start to realize that even the finest warriors like David in fact did not have what it took to be this man and we lay down our weapons and ask ourselves:

"do I have what it takes to be this hero?"