Following Orders

Tango Foxtrot Charlie Zulu. Hostile inbound Tango Mike fire mission. Etc etc etc. If you're a civilian, I guarantee you've heard this gibberish in any generic war/military action movie you could pull off the shelf. If you're someone who was in the service, then you'll recognize the basic keywords rather well and know the essential meaning behind each given the right circumstances.

So where does this apply outside of the battlefield?
How about on the battlefield of our lives?

Many people probably do not think of their lives as a battlefield. Some may see it as a giant playground. Others can hardly imagine what it means to be worry free for a day and consider every moment another fight to survive. I would argue most of us fall somewhere in between these two extremes, and can relate to the feeling of the extremes from some point in our lives.

As for me, as an up and coming Midshipman in the Marine Corps NROTC program, I do indeed see life as a battlefield given my inherent mentality. And what do good soldiers do long before they near the battlefield?

Train. Train. Drill. Train. Exercise. And then train some more.

For most people this would seem fairly obvious, especially for Marines, seeing as the stereotype of them is a jacked, stacked, ripped, gun-toting SOB who can kick through walls, spends hours working out and has a submachine gun quick draw like John Wayne.

I would like to take a moment to say this is not entirely untrue. OORAH.

However, it also comes in ways many people would not originally suspect. The training a modern warfighter encounters also includes memorizing the Rules of Engagement. The Uniform Code of Military Justice. Other stacks of boring paperwork. And also, many of the key communication terms mentioned earlier. In the heat of a battle, full, detailed orders are difficult to send or receive. This is why the military has its systems of codes and keywords to indicate certain objectives or orders. And because of the system of cross-training field soldiers adopted from the German Wehrmacht from WW II, all front line troops must know how to translate these cryptic messages, whether they specialize in communications or not. And this is where all Christians can take a page from the military handbook.

We must know how to listen for, and interpret, God's orders to us.

One way this can be worked on is by studying the guidebook. We have a basic "Mission Statement" in the Holy Bible given to us by our Lord. In there we can find many tactics, battle plans, do's and don'ts of battlefield living. But we also must be in constant communication with our Lord and communicating with Him about His purpose for our lives, just as front line soldiers must be in communication with their headquarters or base. And just like this physical communication, it needs to run both ways. Always be assured that God desires to listen, but also remember we must take time to quietly listen for Him. Not all are blessed with visions and dreams and many more overt methods of communication. Often God uses the people we encounter, small circumstances in our lives or other such daily nuances to send His orders our way. Therefore we must ALWAYS be willing and able to listen to Him, ready to act on the orders of our Commander. And when these orders do come, and are clearly defined as His will and His desire for our lives, we must not hesitate to answer this call of duty.