Love: What Is It

When we talk about love we seem to think that it's all mushy and cute, but the reality is it's not always so and takes a lot of effort, time, and energy. Today I was talking to an older gentleman and we were talking about how young people today love before they are ready, I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. The reality is we have a tendency to love before our time, to try and say that we are ready to love completely and selflessly. I understand that there is there are exceptions to this rule, but that's not what I want to talk about here.

In our culture, society, and everywhere else in our country for the most part even on my college campus from what I can we have a problem with loving before we ready. You see love is beautifully complex and that's the way it's meant to be, it's not something that is easily understood, or can be comprehended by the lack of wisdom both emotionally and from experiences. Because we like to think we know love what is all about, but the truth is we don't have a clue most of us. I know for me it's something that I've tried to figure out myself, but I'm no closer than I was when I first started dating honestly. I don't really know how else to put this or how else to describe what's happening. Our culture breeds something that isn't love at all, it's not even close to what love is. It's based upon getting our needs met and not about meeting the needs of our significant other first, it's pure selfishness. To put in bluntly we need to remove our head from our asses and look at people in our lives who have been married for years, have lived through trials together, and are still married. Then and only then we can begin to understand what love is.

To often we get fixated on what we are being told we should have versus what we should be doing. I know, I know I'm beating a dead horse, but whatever. I want people to learn from my mistakes so they don't repeat the same thing I did in my younger years, to be better then what I was. Please don't ask me what love is because the only definition I'll tell you what true love is, is the love that God showed us while we were still sinner and sent his son to die on the cross for us. That's the best I can do for you, but before we go on thinking we are ready to love we need to ask ourselves, "Am I ready to put someone else first?" Talk to friends, mentors, people who know you before you make mistakes and also know that you will make mistakes so don't beat yourself up. Show yourself grace because in the long run you will need all the grace you can get.

Why We Fight

Being that today is the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu or what is commonly known as BlackHawk Down this is a fitting blog topic. There are a lot of questions surrounding this topic for those who do not understand why people go off to war. So hopefully in the time it takes to complete this blog post the readers will have a better idea of what is going through someones mind who joins the military.

For most of us in the military especially the Infantry and other combat arms units along with all the other jobs within the military you will find a varying degrees of why people decided to join the military. But at the core of their heart is something all together special. That is something which cannot be defined by words or comprehended as it is hard wired into the individual. Within their heart is a deep love for their country and what they are leaving behind them and knowing it's worth putting their lives on the line to protect what they have grown to love. You see it's not about what's it front of military, but what's behind them that pushes them forward, that gives them the strength to plunge head first into danger without a second. They fight for a country that they love, a place they call home, for a family that is waiting anxiously for their return. That same family who gets the news that their hero didn't make it, that they died fighting for what they believed in. I can't begin to tell you what's that like or even begin to comprehend something like that.

War is often fought by young men in their prime and give up their best years to give their country their lives in service to her. Not sure how else to explain this truthfully as it's hard to explain to people what it means to sacrifice something for a cause which is bigger then we are. I think truthfully we who have gone and come back realize more so the cost, the reason, and what motivates us when we come home as we have lost brothers and sisters in these cruel conflicts which we fight in. We honor our fallen in a manner that to some is odd by going to their graves and having a beer with them or by talking to them as if they were right there with us. We pour out what is left inside of us and long for something bigger then ourselves a cause of our own. To stand side by side with men who given it their all and are willing to stand toe to toe with the threats that face. To fight for what they love their country, their family, their friends, their freedom.

I know for myself and this is easy to admit, but to walk it out is something all together difficult which is if there was a time and I was still able that I would make a stand for what I believe in. Not for myself, but for my country, my freedoms, and my family. I would rather live one day as a lion then a thousand days as a sheep. To step in and face adversity as I once did with my brothers for a cause greater then I. If that day does not come then so be it, but my warrior spirit does not fade if only for a season as it still burns bright. The focus for today is just different now and my purpose is something greater then myself and something that burns inside of me.

Take care and God Bless!