Since my last post I've been focusing on work, life, and relationships, and through all these things I'm in a new and very strange place in my life. Currently I'm pursuing a possible career with JAARS (
http://www.jaars.org/) with in eventual goal of going to remote areas and maintain communication systems. At the same time i'm attempting to get a job that will help enable me to support myself. Its an interesting and a little stressful journey but there are many people that have been very supportive, even if they don't realize it.
As far as spiritual growth, recent ideas of faith that I've not thought about in years have come around again unexpectedly. Most of them come from a very nice Mennonite friend I've come to know in the last month. Specifically the idea of non-resistance has been a topic of interest as it seems to be a core value to the Mennonite faith. I have to admit that at first I thought it seemed irrational and to many people it is, especially just coming out of armed services. Since then I really stopped and thought about it and stories I've heard years ago came to mind. Such as a story of a man (possible a missionary somewhere, I'm not quite sure) was confronted by another man for a fight. His response was to sit and pray and soon after the man who confronted him died from unexplainable causes. The point being the man chose not to show any aggression at all. I cant say that this story is true, its just an old story i remember from many years ago. Another more famous story is of Nate Saint. I think of when the tribe they met on the beach when they attack Nate and his group and all Nate did and could do was to tell them they were friends, even as they were killing them. As I continued to think about this belief in total non-resistance I looked at how the Spirit has led my life. Since I started my relationship with Jesus and received the Spirit, I've not only lost the unexplainable anger, but also any desire to hurt anyone.
This may seem strange knowing that I've joined the National Guard, my intentions for joining was never to enter combat, but to be in purely supporting rolls, such as a computer technician. But even before my training ever started the Spirit revealed to me that just being in the armed forces wasn't for me. And God bless my decision to stay in as long as possible to honor the promise I made when I swore in. As for the Spirit guiding me, even while in training for the Army, i always had an intense desire to never fight for real in any of the training excercises. Most training units try to force trainees to either fight each other or fight your drill sergeant at least once, but in my mind I always refused to even think of it. Eventually, those opportunites came and went without I ever needing to get the chance. And through other circumstances that only God could place, I left the armed forces.
All this leads me to believe that it's Gods will for non-resistance to be a part of my life. I've never really thought about the topic specifically before but I think God has put it in my life without me realizing it. And although not every part of my life has been totally non-resistance, its something that I will work towards. I think it's also one of (if not the only) the few beliefs that I've come to accept as truth just through looking at how the Spirit has led my life and not looking at biblical references. Which I hope to find some soon anyway.
So, this is A LOT of whats new with me and it's always changing it seems with guidance in God.
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