Like a Green Beret

I recently watched a show called "Surviving the Cut: Special Forces Diver." It's about Army Rangers and Green Berets training to become, well, special forces divers. Just watching this show makes me tired. I listen to all the crazy things the narrator says that they're going to do to these guys, and it seems like torture. Probably one of the craziest things I saw them do was called a "bob." Their hands were tied behind their back and their feet were tied at the ankles with weights. They were supposed to sink to the bottom of this 10-ft. pool and then kick off the bottom and get air once they broke the surface. FIVE times. FIVE. If they let out air too quickly, they wouldn't have enough air to come up, and they'd have to start the exercise over. If they struggled at all, they would lose energy, and probably air, and have to start the exercise over. They got 2 "do-overs" in this exercise...and if they used up both, and still failed, they were recycled into a class that would start 8 weeks later.

That's only ONE of the things that they had to do. It was after having to swim across the pool (the length of a football field) with their arms and legs tied (but I don't think they were weighted this time), and then they had to do the "bob" again. They also had an exercise where they were wearing all of their scuba gear, but were wearing goggles that were blacked out, so they couldn't see what they were doing. The teachers in the course would come by and yank the oxygen source out of their mouth, and then they had to find it and put it back in. They would rip the goggles off, so now their eyes had water in them. They would pick them up and spin them around to simulate what the ocean could do to them. AND through all of this, if they broke surface at all, they would be recycled into the next class. The guy who was in charge was explaining that after a certain point, these guys would have hypoxia (low oxygen supply to the body), to the point were about to pass out...and if they did pass out, they'd be recycled into the next class.

What is the point? Why would someone go through all of this hard work? Probably my favorite part of the show is seeing these men talk about their experiences in the pool. I expected them to complain about how hard it was, or talk about how mean their instructors were. I expected them to be ready to quit, to say that it was torture. But you know what they said? They said, "Yeah, man, it was hard. It was really tough. It was the worst feeling ever. But I know that when I'm through this, I'm going to be a better diver. I know that the instructors aren't trying to torture us - they just wanna make sure we don't get killed out there."

Isn't that crazy? It's absurd. It's insane to think that someone would see that torture as just making them a better diver. But you know what? They're right. I wish that my attitude could be like that. I wish that when I went through what I feel is the worst possible situation, I could say, "Well, I know that God is only going to make me better through this" as readily as they talked about their instructors. Don't get me wrong, I know that God has a plan. I know that what I feel like sometimes is only temporary. But this show is just a perfect reminder that we don't have a God that allows suffering for no reason. Just like these Green Berets and Army Rangers know that their instructors aren't just being mean. It's the same thing, except that God is bigger. God has the whole world to account for...and for that reason, people assume that God is out to get them when they suffer. Or maybe that God isn't big enough to remove their suffering.

I think that it's important to remember that we don't have a God that created suffering. He created a perfect world, actually. We were the ones who ruined it (Genesis 1-3). So why didn't He just reset it? Well, I've heard insanity described as "doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different result." Why would He create a perfect world over and over, and expect us to act differently? God is Sovereign, yes, and He is omniscient, yes, but that doesn't negate what we do. He allows things to happen that often make us better people. It depends on your attitude. It depends on your response (James 1:2). Have an attitude like a Green Beret. God isn't out to get you - He's just trying to make you a better soldier. (Ephesians 6:10-18)

**disclaimer: this is something I need to work on every day. And I MEAN every day. It's so easy to be that "down-on-me" person...it's a lot harder to remember that other people get sick of hearing constant complaining. There's a way to express your concerns without being self-centered.**