by Allen B. Clark www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
I have gone in to a Subway Shop and ordered a sandwich and the "layering" begins with all the good stuff, meat choice, cheese, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayonnaise, sauce, the works.
Unfortunately in life we get "layered" with all the bad stuff, issues throughout life that compound on us to impart a "malaise of spirit." Issues from our upbringing and parenting (perhaps bad parenting), relationships with others (sometimes abusive), fears from the neighborhood in which we lived, hopelessness for any kind of a future, despair about relationships, selfishness exhibited in obtaining things for ourselves at the expense of others (thereby causing guilt), sins and "stupids" we committed.
For some percentage of today's volunteer military, the traumas of the battlefield, the loss of comrades, the fears of death, the "survivor's guilt" when we lived and others beside us died, the constant pounding of the pressures of military service are reflected in agonies of nightmares and sleeplessness leading to anger and bitterness.
For non-military we are beset with pressures of finances, employment, relationships, susceptibility to the cultural temptations, peer pressures to indulge in sinful, obsessive, or destructive actions.
Life is a "layering" of experiences, a "compounding" of occurences, some positive, some negative. Some of us never address the core spiritual issues of the experiences. For the good ones , we are not grateful. For the bad, we do not know how to peel back the covering of the situations to introduce a spiritual process for the healing of the memories. In my life, derived personally and through multitudes of conversations with troubled and grieving military veterans and others, each issue must be individually addressed.
Looking at history strategically, beginning with the foundations of our culture from the Hebrews as they left Egypt for the Promised Land, our Lord God in Heaven has laid out a blueprint to light the way for our lives. It is embodied in the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments. When the layering takes us in to dark places, the only way out and into the light is the Word of God. Only our Lord God, who sent Jesus among us as a human being and then to the cross for the redemption of all our sins and to ensure eternal life for us all, past, present, and future, can light the way to peace. Peace for us from all the poundings we have taken from the compoundings of life's issues, caused not only by our faulty and unwise choicews, but also the impacts of other's choices on us.
If we do not allow the infinite available wisdom of a personal relationship with Jesus to be applied to all our challenges, we are like a ship at sea without a rudder. As have I for so many years, we read through our Bible and nothing sinks in. I have discovered in my latter years that it is a treasure trove of lessons and stories and examples of how to address the poundings of our lives. If only I had been enlightened on this earlier in my life.
At Memorial Day ceremonies in Manteca, CA this past week a veteran came up to me. He looked a little unkept, but there was a smile on his face that said it all when he said, "I am a Vietnam veteran and I am a changed man because of Jesus Christ in my life."
Are you ready to stop the compounding of the poundings and try God and the wisdom of a life of faith revolving around a way out of dark places in to the light? As Ellen G. White wrote in her Bible study in Acts of the Apostles, "Those who have loved Him and waited for Him, He will crown with glory and honor and immortality." Sounds good to me!
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