Myers Briggs is for Wimps

Commissioned

On Friday, February 8, 2008 I was commissioned for Active Duty as a LTj.g. in the Chaplain Corps. This was yet another great day in the journey Sarah and I are on. It was a beautiful morning with my wife and mother present. My wife was cheesing and my Mom crying. For the three years he had to deal with me I think even my commissioning officer had a tear in his eye.

Stay tuned as we find out in about month where we will be stationed. We are praying for Hawaii and preparing for North Carolina. --jdw

G.I. Jesus

I am wrestling with a huge theological issue: Should I buy a Jesus Action Figure? Enjoy your laughter but it was burned into my Christian DNA - "thou shalt not have any images of Jesus." Yet this is the coolest thing since G.I. Joe!!

I had a whole bunch of G.I. Joes growing up, of which Snake Eyes is the all time coolest!!! I spent hours and hours with my friends fighting and taking over the evil COBRA. Sometimes, okay a lot of the time, we would become our favorite G.I. Joe and take on the bad guy of the day--jumpin' and kickn' butt. There is something so cool about action heroes. They represent a strong answer to all that can go wrong in our world. Where evil is at work... G.I. Joe is there.

As I am entering Lent I am seeking to gain a new appreciation for what it means to follow Jesus. Our church is spending every saturday until easter reflecting on the Jesus' journey to the cross. What actions did Jesus take that shape my everyday actions. How did he face the evil of his day? Heavy stuff... did I mention they have a Deluxe Jesus with glowing Hands?

Blog Blog Blog

In my excitement to refresh my blog

I found myself in a fog

It seemed so simple at first

Now my mind needs a burst

O for something useful to share

O for something... anything I don't care

A wise Chaplain told me to keep it fresh... keep it new

To write propheticly and give you somethin' to chew

Instead your stuck with my pitful rhyme

Maybe you'll get somethin' better next time

JT vs. GMT

Since today is New Year’s Day and I am thinking about time I thought I would share with you about the time war occurring in my own soul. I had all hopes and aspirations of leaving this coming week to resume my military career and fulfill God’s calling on my life as a Chaplain. To my utter surprise I have learned this last month and a half that God and the United States Navy do not operate on JT (Jay Time). This has been mind boggling and the cause of endless frustrated daydreams.

Part of my anxiety comes from self imposed guilt. There are women and men who have been doing their part for the last five years while I have been attending school. Part of it arises from my eagerness to fulfill God’s calling on my life as a Chaplain. Part of it comes from my ADHD and my three year itch to move (thanks to my previous military experiences). And so in my recent reminder that the world does not operate on JT I have heard God’s small, still voice scream “Just Chill Jay, your time will come.”

GMT (God’s Magnificent Timing, not Greenwich Mean Time), seems so allusive at times to follow. It is easy to look back and say “oh God’s timing is so perfect,” but in the moment my watch is not set to GMT and I wonder why God is not following my schedule. Then I am reminded I am not the one who hung the moon and the stars or Jupiter or Mars… PTL!

I know God has in the air, on the land and sea the women and men needed to do His work where they are. I am thankful for the time I have with my beautiful wife. The church where we serve is full of wonderful people and is a fun place to work and minister. We do expect to receive our orders in the next month or so and leave in May… and so it is time to wait.

As we begin 2008 I pray for Peace on Earth and Good Will to All!--jdw

Merry Christmas

A Capella

The story of St. Martin of Tours tells how Martin, when he was a soldier, shared his cloak with a beggar who was cold. The story goes he had a dream the same night in which Christ revealed to Martin, it was Christ whom he clothed. Symbolically, the cape or cloak was later carried into battle by Frankish priests for their kings to represent the holy. [1] They were known as keepers of the cloak (capella), or chaplains and around them mass would be held.

For me, the presence of Christ Jesus cannot be divorced from one of the ugliest realities of fallen humanity, war. The role of the Chaplain is to provide spiritual presence. It is one way God’s prevenient grace is at work in the world. All people are called to love God and love others. All people are called to live lives of service using the gifts and graces God gives them. The call to ordained ministry is scripturally and traditionally based upon God calling out of the community of believer’s men and women to serve the community. To serve by proclaiming and teaching the Word of the Lord, by caring for God’s people, by guarding what is holy, and by administering the sacraments. Primarily within our western social context this call is fulfilled within the community, within the local Church congregation.

The call to chaplaincy is a call to do so in similar and different ways. Chaplaincy is similar to traditional pastoral ministries in that the minister is called to serve believers by proclaiming and teaching the Word of the Lord, by caring for God’s people, by guarding what is holy, and by administering the sacraments. It is the primary function of a Christian military chaplain to provide for Christians. In scripture and throughout history when war has occurred God has sent priests and pastors to care for those in harms way. My understanding of my primary duty as a military chaplain is to be a Nazarene pastor who cares for protestant Christians. Chaplaincy is different in that the chaplain is to live and work in an institutional and pluralistic setting. The institutional demands on a military chaplain call for the chaplain to be an ethical and moral advisor, as well as to facilitate spiritual care for all military personal. What a Christ-like task to be God's love to all people despite religion or ethnicity! It is a tension only to be lived out by the grace of God.

One significant passage of scripture shaping my understanding of ministry is 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (TNIV)

I understand my call to chaplaincy ministries as being an ambassador and reconciler for Christ. It is my desire to walk along side men and women who are willing to lay down their lives for others and to provide pastoral care, to share the gospel, and to reconcile as much as is possible the evil and awful realities of the world we live in. It is a call to listen, to grieve, to support, to be the very presence of God in the midst of national agendas, institutional realities, and the horrors of war. It is a call to be a capella.
[1] The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd Ed.