Christian Living

---

Spiritual Battle Skills Courses
© 2006
by

Stephen A. Peterson


It’s called “Battle Skills”. The course is so named to teach selected Army Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers how to manage Battalion to Corps sized combat unit on a wartime battlefield. A part of the course requires movement through obstacle laden terrain as machine guns spray the area with live rounds.

On the day our class was tasked with movement under fire, it rained. Several students were shocked when training went forward. They complained and felt getting down on the ground in mud was beneath their rank and experience—they said they felt like it was like going through basic training all over again. The Commandant of the program, a Colonel, appeared then explained the necessity of conducting training in any and all environments. With his neatly polished boots and crisp, clean, starch uniform moved under the obstacles saturating his person with mud. Without another word said, every person completed this phase of training in the rain and in the mud.

Why are soldiers, junior and senior levels, put through such conditions and circumstances? So that on the battlefield in the face of miserable conditions whether they be privates or generals will move, without hesitation or debate, to accomplish their mission and save lives and not be halted by the conditions.

At times throughout every living person’s life, they are put through “Battle Skills course”—trials and tests that are extremely painful, seemingly degrading, get us dirty and make us feel as though we want to quit. We don’t understand why we have to undergo such gruesome experiences. So many people, including Christians, see no redeeming value in suffering, pain or loss. Like the handful of officer and non-commissioned officers that day, they refused to participate citing dozens of reasons why they could not or would not do so. Only a high ranking officer’s example and his impressive work encourage everyone to “give a little extra”.

The Colonel’s example is not unlike Jesus’. His entire life of thirty plus years on earth was one of pain and suffering, loss, betrayal and rejection—He was, indeed, a man of sorrows and suffering. I can nowhere in the Bible find where He complained to the Father about a lousy bed, bad food or about the men and women who just couldn’t seem to get His message no matter how hard He tried to teach them by word and example.

If I was Jesus, I would have thrown up my hands, taken the fastest cloud back to heaven, and told everyone, “You’re on your own!” But He didn’t. He stayed and suffered everyday of His human life and never once complained. He did what He did because He loved every human person for all time with a love humankind is incapable of knowing or understanding.

But in retrospect, if we have a prayer life and believe only in the unconditional love of God, once we have survived the ordeal a new found strength will have prepared us for future conflicts and battle just to come as they most certainly will. And as Christians, a deep assurance will also well up in our hearts and souls that with God on our side, we will be able to face the future without the crutches of substance abuse, suicide, sexual manipulation and exploitation of others, and relational abuse of others. That’s the benefits and enduring blessings of spiritual battle skills courses.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE