Giving Thanks in all Situations

Wow! I am pretty sure I have blogged on this subject before, but once again my faith is being tested by my circumstances. As most of you know I have been searching for work ever since I landed back in the USA nearly 6 weeks ago.
Despite my 30 years of experience, 25 in a management or executive position, I can't seem to land a job as a retail manager or anything else for that matter. I have been entrusted with national security information and millions of dollars of sensitive item inventory, but can't be trusted with t-shirt and board shorts.
I have received several notices of interest from employers wanting me to return to the middle east, but very little here with the exception of one very good job with very low pay that would require me to move. The moving did not prevent me from taking the job, although there is nothing I would love more than to live out my years right here on the Outer Banks, it was the inability to sell our home or maintain two households on what they were offering that caused me to decline what otherwise would have been a great opportunity.
Then the call came. I could not have been more excited. The company that sent me to Iraq was offering me a position here in the US. This is the one I had been waiting and praying for, but it was not to be.
It seems there was an obscure government requirement, thought at first to be inconsequential, that derailed my excitement. Back to square one in the job hunt.
At first I felt depression, then worthlessness and then a bit of anger. But at who? At whom should I be angry? No one intentionally denied me employment for personal reasons. God did not punish me for un-confessed sin, I don't think (pretty sure I have confessed it all). There was no one to blame and quite frankly I didn't care for that. It would have made it much easier to have someone to direct my anger towards, but it was not to be.
Recently I have been doing a lot of talking about how I had been convicted by God to share His word of encouragement with men to live out the faith we say we have. God didn't convict me to condemn other men for their actions or lack of, but rather as a result of my own self examination of my faith and trust in Him.
Suddenly I realized here is my chance. The chance to live out my faith. To praise God in spite of my circumstances, to rejoice and to give thanks for the undeserved protection and love I receive daily from my Lord and savior who would never harm me, but has given me abundant life.

Lessons from the Desert: Battle Buddy

By now many of you know that I am back in the Great US of A! Wow, what an opportunity God provided for me and at the same time He has greatly increased my appreciation for the things I use to take for granted daily. The whole experience really your sensitivity to all we overlook on a daily basis. For example:



When our plane landed at Forbes Field in Kansas in late September I was awe struck by the glistening dew sparkling like diamonds off the beautiful green grass. It literally took my breath away. I know that sounds a little less than manly, but 18 months ago I would have never noticed the beauty of God's creation as I did that morning and for that I am so grateful.



It took God less than 7 days to create what it, unfortunately, takes some of us more than 50 years to appreciate. Sadly enough, perhaps, some never appreciate it. Personally, I think it is time to stop and appreciate all that God has done for us and at the same time step up to the responsibility he has given us as Christians. Stepping up to this responsibility is the greatest way we can worship and demonstrate our love and appreciation for all He has done.



Many of you reading this know the Lord as your personal savior and accept His word as the truth, the way, the light. However, how many of us truly live what we believe? I for one get very disappointed in the things I do and don't do that I know would be pleasing to God. I believe and yet I don't quite live what I believe. Why can't I get it right? Why can't I get my actions in sync with my beliefs? This is not an easy answer but there are things we can do to help us get up each morning and prepare ourselves for the day ahead.



One lesson God demonstrated to me while in Iraq was the importance of having a "Battle Buddy." Your Battle Buddy was the guy who would help to make sure you had all your gear in the right place, in working order, and who would never leave you. He went everywhere with you and made sure that during times of struggle or conflict, he was there and would never leave you. This provided both a sense of security and comfort knowing that there was someone to hold you accountable and keep you on the right course in preparation for a tough day in the trenches.



Here the Battle Buddy is just as important for us as Christians as it is for the soldier in Iraq. There is a war waging daily against good and evil. Everyday we face temptations that put us in harms way and unless we have someone who loves us enough to help us navigate the difficult path it is sometimes to much for our sinful nature to bear.



You are probably more familiar with the term "accountability partner", however, I tend to think "Battle Buddy" is a more applicable term for the difficult challenges that each of us face as we tend to the things we have been in trusted with.



I urge you today to find and reach out to a Battle Buddy of your own. It is too important to neglect. Find someone who will call at least weekly and see how you are doing in your spiritual walk. In kind, you check on them as well. You develop a relationship of trust and respect and you love them enough to tell them when the path they are traveling is one that will lead to destruction. Help each other to dress daily in the full armor of God (Eph. 4:13) and prepare for the challenges that lye ahead. If you do it will make a tremendous difference in your ability to see the danger that lurks ahead for all of us.



Be prepared! Be ready! Be all you can be for our God!

Thank You! To the Hero's at Home

I am with in days of leaving Iraq and heading home. As you can imagine I am thrilled to be reuniting with my family. Being away from them, my OBX home, friends, and the Church I love, for the past 16 months, has been one of the most challenging and difficult times of my life. I never imagined it would be so difficult and the experience has exponentially increased my appreciation, respect and admiration for the men and women who serve our Country.

Many of the young hero's here have been through multiple deployments and their dedication to our way of life is extremely impressive as are their skills and leadership.

While serving with them I have also learned how important it is to be a hero at home. That is one who supports our soldiers with prayers, letters, emails, care packages, family support and so forth. It can not be understated how valuable it is to the welfare of our deployed loved ones to receive a kind & encouraging word, dry socks, fattening snacks, DVDs or a toothbrush. Not long ago I opened up a fresh tooth brush and smiled when I realized what was inscribed on the side of it; "Jeffrey D Jacobson DDS" along with a number I recognized as local to my home.

Dr. Jacobson is not my Dentist, and I am not even sure how he knew I was in Iraq, but he sent a care package full of tooth brushes, toothpaste and floss for me and the soldiers I serve with.

This simple act of kindness is received here as a remarkable act of caring and support.

I have included a picture I thought Dr. Jacobson might appreciate of his act in action. While the tooth brush never saw combat action the recipients of his kindness did and they are all very appreciative of the support they get from home.

So to Dr. Jacobson, and all who have taken the time to show they care, Thank you from the bottom of my heart and may God bless you and your family always. I wish I could list you all, but that would be a tough task. So many of you have supported us during this war effort and to us you represent the hero's at home.

A Surprise from Iraq...7,000 miles away

My daughter Emily's 12th birthday was Sept 15. Big deal for an 11 year old girl! Twelve is the end of being a "Tween" and she is now working on becoming a teenager...oh my!  That is very hard to say. In 364 more days our little girl will be a teenager!

Anyway, back to the surprise from Iraq. While Emily was eagerly anticipating her birthday little did we know that her dad was planning one of the biggest (and best) birthday surprises ever. Over a month ago he had written one of his very good friends, Billy, from our church and asked him if he would surprise Emily on her birthday at school by bringing her a very special lunch. If you know Emily then you know that McDonald's Cheeseburger Kids Meals are one of her most favorite things to eat, and having a Happy Meal delivered to your Middle School, in front of all your friends, well that is just frosting on the cake...having it come from your dad who planned this all the way from Iraq, there are no words to describe it. Billy, who has consistently written Dale and asked if there was anything he could do for him here, said yes and he and Dale began coordinating the drop off of the Happy Meal. Now this was supposed to be a surprise for Emily,  but Dale also wanted to keep it from me too.

Dale wanted Emily to come home from school and tell me how wonderful, special, amazing, and fantastic her dad was...okay, I made that part up. He didn't tell me because he wanted to make sure that Emily did not find out about this at all (Note to Dale- I am very good at keeping secrets).

On with the story. One day at church Billy was asking Em and I all kinds of things about Happy Meals and what time she had lunch at school. Emily and I both wondered why in the world Billy would want to know about Em's lunch and what she liked to eat at McD's. When I got home from church I immediately IM'd Dale and told him about this strange conversation with Billy. For a minute or two Dale played along with this. He had "no idea"and he wondered what would "possess" Billy to ask such questions. Then the boy caved! He spilled the beans and told me everything. What a cool idea I thought!

As it got closer to Ems big day, I went in to the school to make sure it was okay if Billy came to school to bring Emily a Cheeseburger Happy Meal on her birthday. First I talked to the school counselor who said it was a great idea and she said that she thought it was so special that Dale would do this for his little girl from so far away and she knew it would mean so much to Emily. So we had all the details set in place. September 15th was right around the corner. Billy and I were going to meet at school at noon and he was going to wait in the cafeteria for Emily to come in and give her the Happy Meal.

Dale had made a sign that said "Happy Birthday Emily. Daddy loves you" and he was going to hold it and have a soldier take a picture and Billy would turn that into a card. Dale sent me a copy of the picture and the sign. It was great, but Dale was not even holding the sign. He was near it, but while he has been gone we have been sending packages and letters to some of the soldiers and Em has become Pen Pals with a few of them. When Dale said he wanted his picture taken they immediately took the sign because they wanted to wish Em a Happy Birthday as well.

Back to the day...I met Billy and he had the meal all set and ready and he and his wife, Martha Marie, bought Emily the most beautiful balloon bouquet I had ever seen. It was so big that I could barely see around the balloons to walk to the cafeteria. Most of the 6th grade teachers knew about the surprise and we all waited for Em to finish PE and come to the cafeteria. I hid in the corner because I didn't want her to see me. I wanted her to see what her dad had done for her. She comes out of the gym and there Billy is, all smiles, wishing Em a Happy Birthday from Iraq. Surprised...oh my goodness..Em was in shock! She got pretty emotional when she opened the card from her dad and saw him with his military buddies wishing her a happy birthday. I admit it made me pretty emotional too and Martha Marie even looked like she was a bit choked up. I even noticed a few teachers wiping their eyes. It was the best gift ever!

When Emily got home she could not stop talking about it. She said that almost every single 6th grader had wished her a Happy Birthday and by the end of the day the whole school had heard about it. Emily wrote her dad an email when she got home from school to thank him and tell him how special that was. She said it not only made her day, but it made her "life" and it was the best Cheeseburger Happy Meal she had ever eaten becasue it was all the way from Iraq with Love From Her Dad!

Lessons from the Desert

Hey Guys! My time here is getting short. I can't say that I hate to leave, but I can claim to have made enough new and great friends to be somewhat sad to have to part company. I have we sleep so well at night. They sacrifice so much for so little. I am proud to have been with them and to have experienced a tiny bit of what they go through.
The other day I witnessed a promotion ceremony. It is not the first I have witnessed, but something finally struck me about the significance placed on this promotion. Not that the soldiers getting promoted were anymore significant than the last, but the standing room only audience which was there to celebrate the accomplishments of one of their own.
So often in life we focus on ourselves and what we get or don't get. A good day is not measured by the accomplishments of others, but by our own success or failures. If we fail to live up to our standards or someone rains on our parade and we have a bad day everyone has a bad day. Kind of like the old saying that "when Mommas not happy, nobody's happy". Perhaps better put, if I have a bad day I could care less who has a good day.
This kind of thinking is not only self serving, but it is also self destructive. Furthermore, it is very un-Christ like. In 1st Thessalonian 5:16-18 Gods word tells us "To rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is Gods will for your life in Christ Jesus".
Why would this be Gods will for your life if it were not good and true? The answer is it wouldn't be. God does not want to hurt us or for us to hurt which is why this is His desire for your life. He wants you to have joy and peace, but not only when good fortune is coming to you. You see the more I live the more I learn that there are always wonderful things going on around us that are cause for us to celebrate. They may not directly affect us, but why can't we celebrate the joy of others? Now that sounds pretty Christ like doesn't it? Celebrate the joy of others.
Try this; next time you feel really down, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, the dog wants to go out earlier than normal, it's raining and the umbrella is at the office, you lost your job, the car breaks down, Stop!, and think of someone else who just got a promotion, or in these times a job, think of the new Mother and Father, the graduation, baptism, the brutal chemo treatments that are going well, and smile. God has given us reason to celebrate everyday, we just have to look beyond ourselves to see it, and perhaps more importantly, to experience it. When you do, you will rejoice! Then pray and give thanks that God is on the throne and Christ overcame death and the cross so you don't have to carry the burdened.
God bless you and keep you. See you soon!

More Lessons from the Desert

Over the past couple of weeks I have been really meditating on a verse out of the book of Daniel. It seems to consume my thoughts as I seek to know my Savior better today than yesterday.
Ironically, while you are all familiar with Daniel, Chapter 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, it is a small part of one verse (18) that has me celebrating the remarkable word of God.
The 3 Jewish men had found favor with King Nebuchadnezzar and were set over the province of Babylon. Now, however, they were being accused of breaking the King's decree which required all men to bow down and worship a golden idol made by the King himself. In fact, they refused to worship any god, but their own, the God of Abraham. This of course took remarkable faith and courage. Their punishment was to be thrown in to the blazing furnace. Well we all know how the story ends and indeed God did rescue them.
But, they didn't know how the story would end when they responded to King Nebuchadnezzar's threat to toss them into the furnace. They knew God could save them and believed that He would save them, but they did not know. And still they responded;
"But even if He does not"... This statement spoke volumes to me. These men were prepared to remain faithful to their God whether He chose to save them or not. Can we have this kind of faith in today's world?
Not only can we, but we should if we truly believe that God is faithful to His word and faithful to us, His children.
I am sure right now there are things from which you would love to be rescued. I am sure that some of you believe that God will rescue you. What I hope is that we all understand that He may not, at least not how we expect, yet our faith should not be shaken.
I do not pretend to understand the ways of God, but I do intend on being faithful during all times, good and bad. If I stumble, and I am sure I will, He will pick me up again, not because of who I am, but who He is and in His Amazing Grace!
God bless you!

Lessons from the Desert

Hello Everyone! As my time draws to an end over here I want to thank you all for the support in the form of prayers, cards, and letters. Yesterday and even this morning I was overwhelmed by the many Birthday wishes I received. I am really grateful to you all. Spending my birthday far from home and family is not what I would have wished, but it was nevertheless another mile marker, or goal reached, along this journey.
Over here, more so than at home, I get in the habit of looking at the calendar and setting mile markers that draw me closer to home. I wouldn't call them goals, but there are goals met along the way with the ultimate goal of finishing well and reaching the end of a long journey.
I have set a goal of reading as many books as I can while here and I have read many. I have set a goal of drawing closer to Christ and, with out a doubt, have drawn closer. All of us have something we want to achieve and will often set goals to reach them. This is a good practice when the goal is a righteous one.
This morning I read a story of a man who happened to die yesterday on my birthday. The story is about a man from Kenya, Joseph Stephen Kimani Nganga Maruge, who at the age of 84 decided to enroll in primary school. Why is a pretty logical question to ask. Why would an 84 year old man decide it was time to go to primary school. Why put up with the embarrassment, the ridicule, the hard work and effort, which I am sure gets harder as we get older(and yes I am speaking from experience)? Joseph had a goal.
Joseph had set a worthwhile and righteous goal. He wanted to learn to read the Bible before he died. Joseph reached his goal. He didn't complete primary school, but he did learn to read the Bible.
I have no idea what kind of quality of life Joseph had during his 89 years of life in Africa, but I am sure the last few were full of amazement, discovery and peace few will ever know.
While this applies to all of us, the following is for the men who read this.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we would set righteous goals that advance the truth of God and enhance people's lives without concern over what others might mock, or ridicule? Not caring about what the world thinks, but only of what God thinks. Becoming leaders, armed with the truth, for our families, for our communities. Ask yourself this; are we building an earthly or heavenly reputation? I encourage you to read 1st Timothy 6:12 and take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.
My prayer is we all get to the point in our life when God is first and all else seems unworthy of worry.
God bless you all and I will see you soon.