Home Town and Military Families

Hearing a person’s story is one of my job’s great blessings. Every single one is unique, but they are all punctuated by good memories and bad, happy events and sad. We look at life through our own lenses that we don’t understand how differently someone else experiences the world.

I know a man who has no memories of a home other than his hometown. The patterns of his life were set decades ago. He drives the same routes to the same places, greeting the same people, ordering the same food. The consistency of the pattern is comforting to him. He feels that he knows what he can count upon as he strings days into weeks, months into years. It’s been a long time since he had to start over making friends, finding his way, and building a new life.

Another man has spent a great deal of his time in the military world. Two years in one state, 6 months in another country, 1 year in hostile territory, another 18 months in a different state. Barracks, on-base-housing, off-base housing, shipboard bunks, and combat are all familiar places and experiences. If you ask him how many places he has lived in his lifetime, you will have a long conversation. Every few months, life starts over with new patterns, new lodging, new stores, new churches, and new friends. I once talked to someone in the same military life and he said, “You learn to make friends real fast, and you never know how long that time will last.”

These two lives represent very different worlds, different experiences, and require different skill sets. One needs patience for the long haul of friendship, and a life lived in static circumstances. The other requires courage and patience with unpredictability. He must adapt quickly and longs for a taste of static circumstances.

But both of these live as “foreigners and strangers” in the world of sin. Each must combat temptation and find their safe refuge in the Cross. Each must also fight the battle for relationships. The hometown man could settle for the existing relationships and cut himself off from befriending someone new. The military man could settle for the isolation from risking relationships and cut himself off from befriending someone new. But both are called by God to practice hospitality and “make the most of every opportunity, seasoning your conversations with grace.” For both, obedience is a choice.

So, which is most like YOU? Will you risk opening your heart to new relationships? Will you live like a HOST wherever you go or wherever you stay?