The Soldier

It is the soldier, not the reporter, that preserves our freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, that protects our freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the minister, the rabbi, the priest, or the sheik, that protects our freedom of religion.

It is the soldier, not the politician, that protects our right to vote.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer, that protects our right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier, not the campus protestor, who puts his life on the line to give others the freedom to demonstrate.

And it is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, who fights for the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who protects the protesters’ the right to burn the flag.

It is the soldier that protects the freedoms that all Americans enjoy; Freedom is Never Free

Adapted from Father Denis O’Brien, USMC

A Veteran’s Day message from Under the Hood Ministries

A Memorial Day Devotional
From Under the Hood Ministries

WHAT ABOUT THE GRAVES?

In May 1966 President Charles DeGaulle demanded that all American troops be removed from French soil. 

Publicly, President Lyndon Johnson said, “If a man doesn’t want you in his house, you get your hat and leave.”

Privately, Johnson, a World War II veteran, sent Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Paris with the instructions to “Ask DeGaulle about the graves.”  The graves of the fifty-six thousand American dead buried in French cemeteries during the World Wars.

How soon people forget.  As leader of the Free French DeGaulle watched Americans, British, and Canadians die to liberate a land that wasn’t even their own, making the ultimate sacrifice for people that they did not know.  Twenty years later he was demanding that soldiers from those same countries evacuate from French soil.

Even today Americans are dismayed by DeGaulle’s arrogance, and they cheer the dig delivered by Johnson.  How could someone be so ungrateful? 

What about the graves?

And yet, how will we spend Memorial Day?  Celebrating the beginning of summer by barbequing hot dogs?  Taking advantage of the sales at the mall?  Boating on the lake?  How much thought will we give to the honored dead during the course of one day?  What about the graves?

We should never forget those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, the war dead of the past 220 years, those that gave their lives so that we could have the freedoms that we enjoy today.  It would be unfortunate if we, like DeGaulle, asked them to “take their hats and leave."

And just as we tend to forget those that died in the past two hundred twenty years of American history, we sometimes forget the greatest sacrifice of all.  Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ stormed the beaches of Hell to liberate our souls from the oppression of sin and death.  He was a sacrifice for our good, not His own.  Yet how do we respond to that sacrifice?  How often are we ungrateful, like Charles DeGaulle, demanding that the very person that defeated the enemy now leave our lives.

But before asking Christ to “Take His hat and leave,” we’d better ask ourselves:
"What about the Grave?"

A Mermorial Day Devotional from Under the Hood Ministries.

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A Mother’s Day Devotional
From Under the Hood Ministries

“PROTECTOR OF THE FLANK”

Pastor Leo Godzich, marriage specialist at Phoenix First Assembly of God and founder of the National Association of Marriage Enhancement (NAME), has spoken a few times at Capital Christian Center.  One of the most valuable insights that I have received from him is the Biblical husband and wife relationship. 

The term in Genesis 2:18 that is translated “helper” is the Hebrew word “Ezer.”  An Ezer in the Israelite military is one that “Protected the Flank” of the Army.  It is well-known that woman was fashioned out of a rib, “not from the head that she should rule over him, or from the foot that he should trample on her, but from the rib, that she should work along side of him,” and “Protect his Flank.”

Men look forward: they are task-oriented, hunter-gatherers, workers, that get the job done.  They live life from one task to another, never looking to the right or left.

Women look outward: they are relational, talking, protecting everyone’s flank.  If there’s no flank to protect they’ll find one.  They go to the bathroom in groups, protecting each others’ flank.  They live life constantly looking to the right and left.

I cannot think of a better person to protect the flank of this family than Cheryl, a woman that God has fashioned, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” especially for me.  Especially for this family.  I spend most of my time looking forward, providing the resources that the family needs but happily unaware of what happening around my family.  Cheryl on the other hand looks outward, looking at the interests of the family as a whole. 

We had an appointment with our immunologist at the University of Washington last August.  I was prepared to go up and come back; one night in a hotel and back to Boise.  Cheryl noted that the U.S. Navy Blue Angels were in Seattle the same weekend.  Not only that, the Red Sox had a series with the Mariners as well - “We’ll get comps from Ronda.  Why just a doctor’s visit?  It could be a family mini-vacation!”

Only she could finagle that, and finagle she did.  Molly ate peanuts provided to her by Dustin Pedroia’s mom!

Cheryl knows each of our three kids well.  She knows what motivates them, what fears they have, the best punishment when they get out of line, what they like for each meal, what they don’t want on their hamburger.  She knows their friends and the names of their parents, their phone numbers, their emergency contact numbers, and the denomination of church they attend.

I am vaguely aware that there are three small human beings in the house.

Which leaves me to a few questions for my wife:

• What happened to the Expedition and why don’t we see our mechanic anymore?
• What do all those bottles in the shower do?
• Who are these three small people living with us?
• What was that place we went to last summer; with the rides and the giant dancing mouse?
• Will your pink razor work the same as my blue one?
• Is that kid one of ours?
• Does this make me look fat?
• Why should I stop and ask for directions?
• Do you really think we should let Molly date before she’s thirty-five?

I thank God every day for making for me a suitable helper - an “Ezer,” a “Protector of My Flank.”  I should thank Cheryl for being my “Ezer” more often.  Men, we should all thank our wives for being our “Ezer” - not just on Mother’s Day - but everyday.

Happy Mother’s Day from Under the Hood Ministries.

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A young lady with a “St. Luke’s Volunteer” nametag brought a colorful bouquet up to Cheryl’s room on Tuesday.  It was well-received following a very difficult day and night of a migraine headache brought about, we suspect, by the continual morphine drip given to her for pain.

“Who’s it from?” Cheryl asked groggily.

I searched for the names and reported that they were from Pastor Ken and Connie Wilde at our church, Capital Christian Center.

“That is beautiful,” my weary wife stated.  Three tall red tulips rose from the back of a wicker basket.  Purple Osteospermum and yellow Kalanchoe were nestled under the basket’s handle in front of the tulips, while purple lavender and pink and yellow primrose grew in the front of the bouquet.

“You know what?” I said looking deeper into the basket.  “These flowers came be replanted.”

How appropriate.  During Cheryl’s ten weeks of pain and frustration God told Cheryl that we were going to be “replanted.”  He directed Cheryl during her times of Bible Study to Jeremiah 17:7-8; we were to be “Like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers.”

Pastor Ken repeated the prophetic word one week before Cheryl’s surgery, using Jeremiah 17:7-8 as the text of part of his sermon.

We asked God, constantly, what is the purpose behind the scoliosis and stenosis sustained by Cheryl.

1. Why did He take the Race to Robie Creek away from the Red Lady? 
2. Why did He put a hold to our applications to be Certified Personality Trainers with CLASServices? 
3. What is to come of the Treasure Valley FCA Coaches and Spouses Conference? 
4. Why is Under the Hood Ministries being placed on sabbatical?

God’s response was simple: “You are being replanted.”

Selah

Unfortunately, replanting is not easy; it is painful for a tree.  A tree that gets replanted is likely to go through shock.  It might lose some branches along the way.  To help it grow it might be planted in soil mixed with manure.  All of those metaphors are appropriate for Cheryl.  Where she used to wake-up with a six mile run she now wakes up to six pills on her nightstand.  Her red shoes remain unused in the closet, and the black lab waits eagerly for a run that is still a ways off.

Cheryl and I told Pastor Ken that the bouquet we received in the hospital from him and Connie was designed to be “replanted.”  Not yet making the connection he replied, “We do that with all of the bouquets we send.” 

“It’s like Jeremiah 17:7-8,” I replied. “Cheryl is like a tree being replanted in Eden.”

Pastor Ken smiled when he understood the connection.

And now we can’t wait to see where God replants us, and we can’t wait to see what Eden looks like!

A message from Under the Hood Ministries: www.underthehoodministries.org

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“You did what?” I growled looking grim-faced at my ten-year-old son.
            “I was dancing during ‘Praise and Worship’ and my glasses, I guess, fell out of my pocket and on to the ground and I must have stepped on them.”
            Those glasses: They had been lost for the past four weeks.  I had just found them having moved the couch for vacuuming, and now they were broken.  “Every time those glasses break its another $100 to fix or buy a new pair.”
            “I’ve been wearing my old pair for the past four weeks.  I’ll go back to those.”
            “That’s not the point.”  Teaching our kids responsibility has been difficult work.  Over the history of Calvin wearing glasses he has broken, lost, or left his glasses in more places than I can count.  Losing them under the couch was the latest issue.  Now he was so irresponsible as to drop them on the floor during ‘Praise and Worship.’  What was next?
            “Well, it was during ‘Praise and Worship,’” my wife chimed-in.  “I can accept that.”
            I sighed heavily then relented.  “Let me get this straight,” I said, having settled down, “You were dancing?”
            “Yeah, that’s what we do.  You know, we raise our hands and bounce up-and-down.  Aaaand, I looked down and my glasses were on the floor, …broken.”
            My wife looked at me: “That’s a small price to pay for seeing your son worshipping God.”
            ‘Praise and Worship’ at the Joni and Friends Family Retreat is mainly dancing and waving banners and streamers.  Here were scores of people, many of them children, with disabilities who could not sing, but praised God in the best way they knew.  They danced before the Lord with all of their might.
            When David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem he was “dancing before the Lord with all of his might” (2 Samuel 6:14).  Michal, the daughter of Saul and David’s first wife, despised him in her heart for the display.  David had her put out of the palace.
            None of my children will be put out of God’s house - as David did to Michal.  If my son wants to dance before the Lord, so be it.  I want him to secure his glasses a little better next time.

A message from Under the Hood Ministries
www.underthehoodministries.org

SEED IN GOOD SOIL

If you are on our “Friends of Under the Hood” e-mail list you are aware of the pain that Cheryl has been dealing with over the past six weeks.  Attempts to remediate the pain have taken us to numerous doctor visits and equally numerous prescriptions.  My Idaho teacher’s salary was being stretched to the limit.

The deductible for our healthy insurance is one thousand dollars, which we were quickly reaching, but not prepared to pay for.  Last week we were closely watching our check book register dwindle below $100, below $50, below $30, with bills still outstanding.  We were watching closely as the food in our refrigerator dwindled - well, it wasn’t like we were surviving on bologna and orange juice, but the cupboards were growing bare.

It’s not like we are destitute, but dipping into our reserve in order to pay medical bills was growing old.  We had heard Pastor Ken say, on numerous occasions, “If you have a need, sow a seed.”  And sow a seed Cheryl did.  She wrote a ten dollar check for church with the expectation that God would honor our sacrifice.

“Test me in this!” God says in Malachi 3:10.  Nothing happened.  We knew that there was going to be a check from one of Cheryl’s writing assignments coming in, but that was it - $320; hardly enough to get us to the twenty-fifth of the month.

Cheryl went out to the mailbox on a Tuesday expecting that the $320 check would be there.  It was.  But underneath the check was a “get well” card; inside the “get well” card was a check for $1000.  One thousand dollars; the cost of our insurance deductible.  An amount that was one hundred times the seed that was sown.

I don’t know the purpose for which Capital Christian Center used our ten dollars.  I do know that it was planted in good soil.

Or are we the good soil?  Has God broken us with a crippling injury to turn us and till us so that we may bear better fruit in the future?  Probably.  I trust that this testimony is bearing fruit even now.

Continue to pray for Cheryl.  We’re still frustrated by the slow progress that is being made on her back.  She still has quite a bit of pain.  But we have a faithful God, and we’re trusting Him for Cheryl’s healing.

Thanks for your prayers.

Under the Hood Ministries
www.underthehoodministries.org

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