In the year following this conversation with God, the boy's motives began to shift, The Marines seemed so far off and the boy knew that having both was hard, but possible so slowly, the desire to have a family began to overwhelm the desire to serve. It is, after all, the way the story usually goes right? Neither desire is particularly wrong or selfish, but one seems to me that joining the Marines would help more people. (There's much left out of this part of the story that some of you know, some of you think you know, and that some of you may know in the future, and none of you by any means know the whole picture. Either way, you probably won't ever find it here.)
By the time the boy was 19 and the time for leaving for boot camp drew closer, the boy was focused very little on his aspirations of his past when he dreamed of and prayed and pleaded with God to be in special forces. The boy just wanted to get in, serve his time in the Corps honorably, and get out and have a family. The problem with that plan: No girl. This problem took up much of the boy's thoughts and prayers and frustrated the boy even. Little did he know, his plan, was about to be re-routed.
Through a combination of Divine appointments, love of knives, boredom, and a video game called "HALO", the rearranging of priorities began. To make a very long story ridiculously short: "Hey, I'm Thomas....No, You're MacGyver...Very well then...*hours of talk about knives, Marine Corps, and weapons*...I actually have all the Halo books if you wanna borrow one...sure."
The book, "Halo: The Fall of Reach" which is amazing by the way, woke up the part of me that longs to be so much more than normal, the part that knows if I trust God and work hard I can help more people than I ever imagined. It reminded me of a time when I believed that God would carry me through the trial and hardships of special operations missions in order to save and better the lives of innocent people around the world.
There was, however, a catch, I still long to have a family one day, and I am once again reminded that I don't deserve such an amazing gift from God. Thus enters: an idea. A solution really. The dream of one day having a family gets put into a mental box and locked; the only key: "God's Grace". It goes something like this: Pushing the pursuit of finding a girl out of my mind, (for the time being at least) and unleashing, the very motivated, "Marine Freak" (as it's been called by some) part of me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go all inhuman on any of you guys. I'm still gonna be the same old me (sorta) just with motivatedly shifted priorities.
So what does the real life application of this plan look like? Taking the Marine Corps Online classes on all sorts of thing to make me a better person/Marine; making hash browns out of my couch potato tendencies and working out more; finding good Christian friends to hang out with; keeping my eyes open for what God wants me to do; and, of course, getting deeper into God's Word and prayer and always be looking to Him every day for strength and wisdom in the decisions I make.
An about that box...if God happens to bring a Girl my way, and shows me some divinely inspired path to take, I'll probably open the box and see what happens...until then, to all of you guys out there, sleep in peace tonight, hold your family and friends tight, and live every day to the hilt; because I've got your six.
No Worries, and Godspeed!
-NOTW_7-1
