Combat Camera

One of the unique agencies we have in the Army is Combat Camera. These man and women travel around the battlefield documenting the work being done with digital media. They are very good at what they do and take some fantastic photos (right hand column, 4th down). It's always nice to see yourself on TV or the splash page of Army Knowledge Online however, it comes with a price.

As a PL (Platoon Leader) I had several opportunities to take these guys out on patrol with me and show them the great work my platoon was doing in Bayji, Iraq. I briefed the guys beforehand on what we were doing and everything went smoothly. They were very responsive, took some great action shots, and put together a press release out of the mission. The problem was; during the mission some of my guys had downgraded their uniform, took off their knee pads, eye pro, etc. and when the CG (Division Commander) saw the press release, he didn't focus on what we were doing, but rather on the fact that some of my Soldiers were out of uniform.

It was not a big deal, and they eventually photo-shopped in the sunglasses and knee pads, but it made me think, what if there was a Christian Combat Camera? (I could call them C3 or something.) I would probably act different if there was a camera documenting my daily goings-on. Obviously this is a flawed parallel, as C3 wouldn't be able to get at mindsets and attitudes, which is where the real problem lays most of the time.

The thing is, God doesn't need combat camera, he already has the inside scoop. And, unlike the CG, his concerns go beyond the surface issues of uniform standards, down to what is going on inside of me. His focus is not limited to what can be seen by a camera lens, and there is no photo-shop to fixup my attitude when I'm outwardly in compliance and inwardly rebelious.

Weekend Warrior or Weekend Worrier?

Since it is Friday, I figured I would relate one of the Army's favorite end of week activities... The Safety Brief. As a Commander I would hold formation on Friday evenings and dispense of my awesome knowledge in the form of a safety brief. Basically the theme was always the same "don't do stupid stuff", which will then entail me going to the MP Station at 0200AM to go get you out of the hoosgow (sp?). Each week I would pick different stupid things to elaborate on, highlight incidents from the previous weekend, etc. Most weekends would pass uneventfully, but there those weekends when the inexplicable would happen and I would find myself in deep conversation with my very grumpy, recently awakened First Sergeant. Inevitably the infraction committed was the one I had chosen to elaborate on at the safety brief.

When things were going well I would relax and enjoy my weekend, but when we were closing in on a deployment or some serious field, time my weekend would be a mess of worry and waiting for that phone to ring. I would allow anticipation of a future event I could not control ruin my precious little free time with my family.

Sometimes I view Sunday Sermons as the Christian version of the Weekend Safety Brief. I go in on Sunday and get my dose of "don't do stupid stuff"(sin). When things are going well, I relax and enjoy the music, the message, and get my worship on. But, when things are not so good, when I have made the same boneheaded decision for the millionth time, I am a wreck and ruin my precious little dedicated time with God.

The problem is; Sunday worship isn't meant to be a Christian version of the safety brief, if anything it is quite the opposite. Our focus should be on how in spite of our "stupid stuff", God made a plan for salvation. It should be about renewing our connection with God, and spending some quality time in his presence. I think I need to focus more on that, and less on getting a fix of safety brief Sunday style.

Do Some Stuff

I thought I would follow up the felxicution post with a post about how we arrive at the point of flexicution in the Army. The genesis of this this usually comes in the form of "guidance". Right now I am neck deep in the planning phase of a major 2 month train-up for an up-coming deployment. My guidance came in the form of 2 vague PowerPoint slides and one of my favorite phrases "Do good stuff, don't mess it up."

This is the greatest guidance you can ever give if you have no idea what to say, and are just glad you're not the one that has do whatever it is that you are tasking out. Or, you just don't have the time to spell it all out. It is however, probably the least helpful advice you can give. It doesn't tell anyone anything other than if you don't get it right there will be consequences. It also assumes that you know what good stuff is.

We tend to do this when giving Christian guidance.

Guy: Hey, I'm about to go off to a secular state school and be surrounded by alcohol, sex, and drugs.

Me: Wow, well you know, "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." and stuff. (Matt. 5:48)

Guy: Thanks josh, your deep words of wisdom have profoundly impacted me in ways I have only just begun to realize.

Me: I know.
And we leave it at that.

There it is: the Christian equivalent of "do good stuff, don't mess it up." I am terrible about giving guidance. I automatically switch into Holy Mode (because if you are coming to me for guidance I must put on my holy headgear) and start spouting obscure verses that while possibly helpful, are usually followed by an oratory that will in the end surmount to do good stuff, don't mess up.

That's not what Christ is about though. His "do good stuff", comes in the middle of the sermon on the mount in which he gives all sorts of useful guidance on specific topics to which we can relate (poverty, divorce, judging others, etc.). His guidance is clear and detailed. As for the second part, the "don't mess it up part", his response is; he will meet us with love. I am working on my giving guidance in a more accessible, less "holier-than-thou, do good stuff, don't mess it up" approach. Hopefully this blog is a good start. If it's not, call me on it, I can always use feedback; negative or positive.

Semper Gumbi

Somewhere along the way the Army lost the ability to lock things in. That is, we make a plan and then plan on it changing prior to/ during execution. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it allows for adaptability and flexibility, and takes into account that the enemy/environment have a "vote". We came up with a new word, flexecute (this is a non-doctrinal term) and have been flexecuting all over the place ever since.

The thing is chapels have been in the flexecution game way longer. Walking in on Sunday, I know that the chaplain is going to tag me for something. That something could be collecting offering, jumping in the sound booth, or rocking out with the praise band with my awesome guitar shredding skills (dare to dream josh, dare to dream). We are so good at being flexible in getting stuff done, but what about how we do it?

Raised in a conservative church, going to the chapel on post when I first came in to the Army was culture shock. What do you mean they allow guitars in the sanctuary, Heresy! ... I overcame my hangup with praise music at Sunday morning worship (guitars at youth group was always cool with me) and can now rock out for the Lord anytime. I still tend to get hung up on stupid stuff though, we didn't say the Lord's Prayer, we served communion and it wasn't the first Sunday of the month, etc. Churches have the same problem, what do you mean you have an interpretive dance to a Bebo Norman song you would like to share? I think I'm starting to lose the parallel here, but you get the idea.

We look for scripted well planned worship services, where God can be reached through the song, prayer, song, message, song, and I'm out format (please don't let it last more than an hour too). I think mixing it up sometimes can be a good thing. God shows up in the flexecution, the alternative, not just the bulletin format. So next time youth Sunday rolls around and a kid with green hair does a "punk praise" rendition of your favorite hymn, embrace the flex.

ADD: The principle extends to how we live too. Jesus flexecuted his way all over Israel, he launched his disciples into the world with nothing and told them to spread the word. I think I do a poor job of applying that to my life. I always want a plan, to lock in the next step, and when I don't have that I get frustrated. When I do that I lose the ability to let God show his goodness in the uncertain times. I'm not saying don't plan things out or save for retirement, just know that God has a plan even when you don't, and that plan may require you to flexecute. It's all good.

Morning Mayhem

In the Army we love waking up early. An old recruiting slogan for the Army was "We do more before 8, than most people do all day", which I think was a terrible way to try and get people to join the Army (maybe why we don't use it anymore). I mean, who wants to hear about how early you will have to get up, lets tell everyone that there's free ice cream, that would motivate me. Anyways, it's true, I do a lot of stuff before hitting the DFAC (dining facility) for breakfast chow.

One of the main activities for the morning is PT (physical training). I love that the Army sets time aside for me to get my swole on, as it were. We recognize that PT is an essential part of Soldiering, and so it comes first in our day at a time when there are no distractions.

This is a great model that can be applied to our Christian lives as well. Communication is an essential part of any relationship and our communication with God is no exception. I am terrible at setting aside time without distractions for prayer, but I make PT everyday without fail. In my professional life I mange to put the essential first, why not put God first in my day. I am in the process of putting things more in line and that's part of what this blog is about. There are plenty more parallels involving PT, and I will explore this topic further in future posts (I love how Paul relates the Christian life to sports). Right now though, I have work on getting my prayer on more and using the bussiness of life as an excuse less.

Godly Graffiti

I just returned from a 2 week field problem at a training center in Germany. One of the things I love about deployments (there are plenty of things I dislike) is viewing the latrine "art". It's pretty universal across the Army that in every porta-pottie, out-house, latrine in any training area/Forward Operating Base there will be writing/drawings across every available surface. I don't know what the driving force is behind this defacement, but it's there for all to enjoy. Some of it is vulgar, but some of it is pretty cleverly written limericks and what not. I admit, I have been guiltily enjoying the Chuck Norris jokes that have been cropping up lately.

Invariably though, someone will write "Jesus loves you" or John 3:16 or something along those lines. Now I'm all for evangelism in all it's myriad forms but I have to ask, is defacing government property how we want to spread God's message? I remember one of the beatitudes from the sermon on the mount "blessed are the graffitists for they shall get the last of the toilette paper". Christ calls us to be non-conformists, but we have to smarter than this. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe people have been reached through the Sharpie scripture movement, but I think I'll stick to a more personally interactive way of sharing a God who yearns for personal relationships.

Chuck Norris Haiku 'o the day (as seen on stall door at JMRC):
Man of hairy steel
Chuck don't work out on Bow-Flex
It works out on him

Now that is a treat, the awesomeness that is Walker Texas Ranger boiled down into three lines of 5, 7, and 5 sylables.

Checks and Balances

One of my favorite Army truisms is "What gets checked gets done." When I was a Battery/ Company Commander I got handed a lot of directives each day, and had to accomplish those directives with minimal manpower and never enough time. I got pretty good at figuring out what I had to do and what I could afford to blow off. What helped me determine which "balls" I could drop was figuring out what taskings had visibility, i.e. what got checked; e.g. keeping the Battery area clean, high vis. ordering 100 left handed widget removers we would never use, low vis. Sometimes though, the wrong stuff gets checked, the focus is on how a Soldier looks rather than how well he is trained, how many widget removers are on hand rather than whether or not we know what a widget is or how to remove one in the first place.

The same holds true for me as a Christian. I mis-apply that same mentality in my "spiritual life". Going to chapel on Sundays is high visibility, it gets checked so I make sure I'm there. Spending quality time with God is low vis. so I often let it slide because no is checking in on my quite time. Never mind the attitude that accompanies me to church, I'm there so "check the block", and the deeper issue of blowing off God daily because no one see that. I know, I'm working on that too. And, I'm not saying don't go to church because it's a check the block thing, I love going to church most Sundays (having 2 little boys makes Sunday mornings an adventure sometimes). I think chapel is an awesome way to enjoy corporate worship and connect with other Christians, so put those stones down.

Yes, I did use i.e. and e.g. back to back in the same sentence, though possibly not in the right order. More feats of grammatical gymnastictry in future posts . (gymnastictry is not a word according to spell check, what does spellcheck know. I am inventing words at a phenomenal rate, and thanks to the miracle of the Internet they will now find their way into common usage).

Injects

One tasking I had as a young 2nd Lieutenant was to write "injects" for a division warfighter exercise. A warfighter exercise is a simulated combat experience which focuses on Divisional/ Brigade staffs and their ability to command and control a division. All the troops are built in computers so the actual Soldiers can go about their daily business without having to suffer through yet another training exercise. What it meant to me as an inject writer was 2 more months away from my family and the opportunity to come up with all sorts of bizarre situations to put the division in to create "stress" on the staff in order to help it function at full capacity(coming from a line unit, I felt no remorse, I promise you).

We often talk about injects in the Army, both in terms of situational stuff like the warfighter, and as touch points with our troops, and I see a link to Christianity. When I give an honest look at where my "Christ injects" are on a regular basis I come up with Sundays at Chapel, dinner chow prayer, Thurs. night small group meeting, the occasional Veggie Tales, and nite-nite prayers with my 2year old. Those are all pretty scripted injects, and when viewed as being spread across a weeks worth of time don't give God a lot of "touch points". The random leishmaniasis outbreak inject is missing, I have boiled the direct fire contact down to a standard reporting format. Maybe this is just my issue, and partly why I started this blog, but I think we tend to minimize the Christian injects in our lives, and when we do that we lose the "stress" factor which builds the close relationship with God and helps us function at our full potential.

Obligatory Intro Post

BLUF- that's Army lingo for Bottom Line Up Front, which usually means that past that slide are 120 more slides that you will under no circumstances fall asleep during. Also, it is the first example of many Armyish (new word alert) sayings/ acronyms that will pop up throughout this blog. As I was saying (yes I will continue to interrupt my self also- there I go again), BLUF I am new to running my own blog, but not new to blogs. What I have found is that most blogs have a "mission statement" up front or a clue as to why they were started, etc. so as not to confuse those that wander in unawares. Seems reasonable, especially when the title of said blog does not lend itself intuitively to the purpose of the blog.

Here is what GI Josephus is about: the hopefully funny correlations I have drawn between military service and Christian life. The aim is for the participants to enjoy a quick, most likely sporadically posted (Army life is hectic), slice of Army Christ, and maybe make some connections along the way. And, of course, verbal catharsis for me and my need to use parentheses at least 20 times a day. Feedback is encouraged and will help drive the train on this as I do not have the capital on good ideas.

Caveat: Some of things I say may be taken as insulting, my wife and sister agree that I am an insensitive jerk 74ish % of the time. They are not meant to be, I just find most things amusing, even some things which I understand are holy and reverent.

EDIT: I just found the spell check function and I had 12 errors, I bet the grammar police will be having a field day with this one.

For those playing at home see if you can find at least three distinctly Army sayings in this post.