Verse: Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the integrity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, serving with good will as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:5-7
I remember being asked all throughout my time in the Infantry, “Coop, why do you work so hard? The rest of the Platoon is sittin’ back just relax. You trying to be special forces or something?” I always replied in the same way. “I work hard because I don’t work for you, I work for Christ.” Now team leaders and all the way up do not like that answer, because your First Sergeant (top enlisted soldier in the company) wants you to think he is your god, so sometimes this response can be met with pain. Yet it is true, when we work, we work unto the Lord.
As discussed previously, there is a stigma or false narrative that a grunt cannot be godly. That you cannot lead a life of death and destruction while following our Lord. This could not be further from the truth but everyone you work with will tell you this. All your peers and even your leadership will tell you that you need to, “put your religion aside and give souls to the devil.”
This is why it’s so important to first realize that you can be a faithful Christian and a grunt. It is equally important to realize that ultimately you don’t work for your commander or First Sergeant, but the Lord. Realizing this will help keep you motivated and grounded in why you do what you do. When you view your work as for Christ himself, you start to bring a whole new level to your work ethic.
It is important in this environment to be the best. If you are a Christian and all you do is sham and never strive to be the best, you have just proven in their mind that Christians cannot be good Infantrymen (or whatever MOS in the combat arms). When they see SPC Cooper skipping out on work or finishing dead last in every run the next conversation that will be had amongst the leadership in that platoon will be one that bashes him and God. It will be said, “That’s why most Christians are POGS (Support soldiers), they are just too soft to be killers”.
You should be the best or at least striving to be in the top 5% of all soldiers in the company. Will there be someone naturally faster than you? Sure. Will there be someone who is a better shot than you? Sure. But there are two metrics that will make you the best soldier even if you are outperformed in other areas. That is hardest working and dependable. As a Christian you should never be beat in these categories. This should be where you own the top spot.
If you are hardworking you will improve on your fitness in your own time. If you are hard working you will go to the armsroom when nothing is going on and do dry fires to get better at shooting. As someone who is dependable you will never be late, out of uniform, slack on discipline. Will you be perfect? No, no one is. But if you strive for excellence, you will have an opportunity to point others towards Christ.
Never be outworked, because you work for Christ. It can be discouraging at times to see the people who slack get promoted over you and be buddy, buddy with leadership because they can run fast. But realize that your leadership sees the hard work and more importantly Christ does, and He is glorified.
By, John Cooper
Godly Grunt 6
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