The nearness of the date did finally dawn on me last night, though. And it feels pretty cool to have come so far. It's hard to describe how the time has passed. In a way, it feels like it's been forever, and in another way, it feels like he has hardly been gone at all.
Along with the excitement of the ever-closer redeployment date...and the fear that it will never come for us, is a sense of urgency. Have I learned what God had for me to learn during this time? Am I going to end up where He wants me when it's over? If I'm not on the right track for that, I only have a little bit of time to get there. As hard as deployment is, I have tried throughout it to view it as a special opportunity from God to get to know Him better and to strengthen my faith in Him. Lots of people live with certain issues most of their lives, placing them on the back burners of their hearts because nothing challenges them in doing that. Living under constant pressure, pain, and fear forces such issues up to the forefront, where they demand to be dealt with. It reveals what is really in the heart, both strengths and weaknesses. You learn pretty quickly how much you really, honestly do trust God, and when the question is whether or not you get your spouse back, I think most of us find that the amount of real trust is pretty small. It also brings forth opportunities to share faith that don't happen when life is normal and easy. You meet people that don't know the Lord through the Army, and the stress and fear that we are all living with can bring Him and His peace up in many, many conversations.
I will be glad (really, really super-duper glad!) when deployment is over, but it is definitely a gift from God in my life, and I don't want to waste any part of it. My goal for the next few months is to ask God to show me how to finish it well. To have my eyes open to what He has left for me to do and learn in this season of my life. And not to do what feels natural, which is to check out and find distractions to get it over with as quickly as possible.
Ecclesiastes 7:14a In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider-God has made the one as well as the other...
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