I don’t have a long history of military men or women in my family, but my dad served during WWII, years before I came along. And I have a grandson who served in the navy for 20 years. I share this so you know my premise for this post doesn’t necessarily come from lots of hands-on experience or knowledge. I do believe there is some truth to my premise and for now, just go with me on this!
The premise is this: One of the goals of boot camp is to break down existing behaviors or personality traits, and then build the recruit back up with the character traits and obedience required to be an effective member of the military.
While there’s a part of me that wants to argue against this (the part that would not make me a good military candidate!), I do see the wisdom and necessity of developing the kind of men and women who can be counted on to react appropriately when faced with adversity.
As I was talking recently with a friend about surrendering our own wills to God’s, this analogy came to me almost immediately.
Isn’t this “military” process exactly what we spend (or should spend) our lives working on? Whether we mean it or not, when we ask God to mold us into the character of Christ, this is essentially what we are signing up for.
Let’s look at the similarities.
- Many of the brand-new military recruits have joined up, in part, because they’re hoping to be part of a greater purpose. As believers, our greater purpose is to tell the world that Jesus has died for our sins. It doesn’t get any bigger than that!
- The new recruit likely has many personality traits that aren’t desirable in the military world. Namely a strong desire to maintain his or her self-control. Hmmm … might I also struggle with that same issue in the context of my Christian walk? Definitely. How about you?
- There is a hierarchy in the military that teaches the recruit who their boss is – at every level. Who is, or should be, the head of our lives? God is our ultimate authority. See the previous bullet point to predict how we will likely find ourselves resisting this authority!
- Unlike the military commander, who is anything but perfect and can just as easily use abusive tactics in their training, our God always comes from the position of wanting the very best for his children, even if it feels painful at the time. We can trust his heart.
- There’s a reason boot camp isn’t just a long weekend. It takes time to tamp down inappropriate behaviors and attitudes, and instill the ones that will ultimately make them successful in the military. Similarly, we don’t become ideal Christ-followers after a couple of years. It is a lifetime of learning to bend our wills to God’s.
- The desired end result for the military organization is a well-disciplined, team-focused, obedient recruit, who now understands that this hard process was necessary for them to become a productive soldier, which leads to them reaching their ultimate team goals. Likewise, the Christian who begins to see that the better path is full surrender to the will of God, will experience greater joy and greater fellowship with their Creator and with fellow believers.
As with any analogy, there aren’t perfect correlations, but I think you can start to see the truth in these similarities. And to be clear, God didn’t take his cues from the military model! This was all his idea in the first place.
When we learn to trust God with our “military makeover,” we start to understand the importance of letting go of our own desire to control everything, and begin to reap the incredible benefits of what it means to become more and more like Christ.
Yes, we often and continually fight against that. But God is patient and persistent! My times of greatest growth, and greatest joy, have been when I’ve eventually understood under whose authority I live. I can’t imagine having Someone who loves me more and cares more about my future than God. May we all learn the lessons from God’s boot camp!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
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