The Storm
Homecoming after my first deployment, December 2018. It was sweet then, and it gets sweeter every time.
The Storm
I went out for a walk the other night, and pretty quickly I realized that typhoon season was about to make my outing significantly different than I’d planned.
I strolled along, determined to mail the overdue letter in my pocket at the drop box down the street. By the time I reached it, somehow the letter wasn’t soaked, but I certainly was.
At this point, considering I was a solid 10 minutes from my abode and drenched to the skin, I decided to continue my jaunt for kicks. Coincidentally, “She’s My Kind of Rain” popped on my Spotify playlist. I stayed out in the storm for another 20 minutes or so, and by the time I got back to where I started, the clouds broke and the evening returned to peaceful and muggy like it had been prior to the downpour.
In recent days I’ve been challenged spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. My current chapter of life isn’t a cakewalk. That said, I wouldn’t want it to be.
The strongest metals are forged in fire. God lets us have hardships as opportunities to turn our lives back to Him. They can be opportunities to bring others to Him.
There is so incredibly much potential for us as families, neighbors, communities, and as Americans to build our nation stronger than it’s ever been. But the wolves are at the door. There are many around the world, and unfortunately within our own nation, that would get no greater pleasure than to see what so many men and women have fought, bled, and died to defend be a closed chapter of history. That burns me. It breaks my heart harder than I can express in words.
The solution is not easy. It involves having painful, difficult conversations in pursuit and support of the Truth. It involves dropping those things that nag at us and keep us from being the best, holiest, strongest, most powerful force for mankind. It involves embracing growth as we desperately cling to virtue. It’s not growth without virtue - that is regression.
America is one of the finest establishments of man. I’ve felt it when visiting our nation’s capital. I’ve felt it when walking the battlefields at Gettysburg. I felt it when I visited Normandy where to this day there are windows painted with the Stars and Stripes and messages of gratefulness. I saw it in every immigrant family that worked in food service back home in the northeast as they brought their family members, one by one, across the ocean to live in the U.S. where their children could grow and prosper. I felt it today when I spoke with a friend and mentor of mine and learned more of his love of God and country and his hope despite hardships and discrimination he’s faced in his life.
Contrary to the lies we’re fed day after day, there are millions of people who believe in the United States of America, her opportunity, and her refinement, and by God I am one of them. Love of country and hope for all of us to come out of the fire on the other side stronger than before DO exist. People for centuries chose and continue to choose America as the place to live to their fullest potential.
What we have is more precious than most people realize. It ain’t perfect. But it should scare the absolute daylights out of us to think of a world that doesn’t have a force for freedom, for opportunity, for love, for excellence, for virtue, for prosperity, for the fight that is worth fighting.
We have everything to lose, America. Ain’t no time like the present, folks. Be courageous, and get up for it.
-MJVW