Strong

Some days are easier than others. Some days you feel like shouting "I am WOMAN! Hear me roar!". Or maybe: "deployment shloyment. I got this." We grab our proverbial bootstraps, roll up our imaginary sleeves, and conquer our world. Most days, however, we survive. We get out of bed and put one leg in our pants at a time. We go about our business. We manage to feed ourselves something that may resemble actual vegetables. We smile at the checker at Walmart. We blend in and do what needs to get done. Then there are the other days. You know them. They are the ones that knock you off your feet. These days are a car that has run a red light and SMACK, plows you down, leaving you stunned and bleeding in the street. These days are the ones you don't want your husband to see. You sure as hell know it ain't pretty. You know it may be cause for worry and the last thing you want to do is worry and distract your soldier. But then dagumit, he's the one that makes you feel better. He's your best friend. So then comes the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth as you debate over what to tell him and what to store later to unleash on some unsuspecting victim... uh, I mean, what to vent to a friend about. Or maybe there is no debate and you just whine and weep to your man and make him feel like crap because he is the cause of all this torment. Oh but, none of us would do something like that.We are Army wives, Army Strong.

But what if Army Strong isn't strong enough? What if Me Strong and Love Strong and all the other reasons we think we are strong, aren't enough? Is there a kind of Strong that is stronger than you, than your love for your spouse, than the U.S. Army? Is there a Strong that we can lean on when we've lost all confidence in ourselves, our love, and the Army? 2 Corinthians 12: 8-9 says "At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me. 'My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.' Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness." (The Message) Ok, seriously? Glad to let it happen? Appreciating the "gift" of deployment? That's almost laughable. You and I both know sending the person you love the most in this world into a war zone isn't something we want to appreciate. But what if it causes us to let go of our grasp on good things, in order to be able to receive the best thing?

Self-assuredness and appropriate confidence are good things. Faithfulness, loyalty, and love are good things, things God loves even. It's when we cling to those things for our strength that it gets a little messy. It's a hard concept to understand that when we are weak, we become strong. It's like surgery. If we have dead, necrotic tissue inside of us, making us weak, a surgeon must cut us open, exposing our vital organs. He must cut through the skin, our protective layer. He must cut through our fat, our insulating layer. He must cut through our muscle, the layer that helps us move and remain upright. He must get to the most vulnerable part of us and EXPOSE it. We are then in an incredibly weakened state, arguably more so than prior to the surgery. But it is what he must do in order to get to the dead tissue. He diligently, carefully, and masterfully removes what is dead and what weakens our whole system. We must first be weak before we can be made strong. We can take pills and herbs and do everything in our power to mask the symptoms, but unless we allow Christ to make us strong, we just hold onto the dead thing that's making us sick in fear of becoming even weaker. We have to trust, however, that this process of being weak allows us to become stronger than we ever imagined. Not Me Strong, not Love Strong, not even Army Strong, but God strong.




I credit the phrase "God Strong" to the book with the same title. For more reading on the subject, please check out "God Strong" by Sara Horn, an author and military wife.