A Week Away

Today my battalion leaves for a 2 month gunnery rotation and Mission Readiness Exercise (MRX). During this time they will "enjoy" living in the field training, free of distractions and red cycle taskings. This exercise will prepare them for a future combat deployment, and allow them the time they need to establish their systems for how they are going to fight. While there are mixed feelings about being away from families for so long, field time is generally viewed as a good thing which allows units to gain important skills in a permissive environment.

I think the retreat is the Christian equivalent of the MRX. Granted, there is probably less camouflage face paint, and more showering going on, but it serves a similar purpose. The retreat allows you to get away from those things that distract you in your daily life and focus on gaining skills necessary to having a closer relationship with God.

I haven't been a retreat in a while, but this summer I plan on visiting a mission that my wife used to be on called CSSM at Long Beach Island. I have no idea what it stands for, if I had to guess I would say, Christian Super Sandtastical Mission for awesome people that really love the Lord and also think the beach is good too, or something like that. That is a little long for an acronym which is probably why they just stuck with the 1st 4 words.

Anyways, even if you don't get to go to one, you can still have that MRX/ retreat experience. Because it's not really about the location or what its called, it's about firewalling off some time to gain the skills that will make your Christian relationships richer.

P.S. If you are running a retreat, make sure it has an awesome name like my wife's summer mission group CSSMaptrltlaattbigt. My friend Steve once did a 3 month one called "Lift" where he lived in the Adirondacks and ate a lot of fish or something. I thought that was pretty good. If I ever run one, it will be called "Heirborn" and will involve base jumping; you'll have to sign a waiver.