{"id":158,"date":"2008-02-29T14:44:04","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T18:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=158"},"modified":"2009-09-02T12:44:44","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T16:44:44","slug":"the-third-priority-of-military-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/29\/the-third-priority-of-military-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"The Third Priority of Military Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third in a series of articles on military Christians and life priorities.\u00a0 The <\/em>first<\/em><\/a> addressed the necessity of the priority of God in a Christian’s life, and looked into the potential responses that others may have to that priority.\u00a0 The second<\/a> emphasized the importance of a\u00a0military Christian’s family.\u00a0 The third priority of a military Christian should be his career.<\/em><\/p>\n

A military Christian’s third priority should be his job.\u00a0 The job priority means assessing how decisions and actions will impact work, professional advancement, and a career.\u00a0 For fighter pilots in particular, the word “job” is used and placed\u00a0here in priority for a very specific reason:\u00a0 being a fighter pilot is a job<\/em>, it is not a life<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fighter pilots generally enjoy their jobs and excel at them.\u00a0 In the end, though, it is still just a job.\u00a0 If\u00a0a Christian fighter pilot\u00a0awakes tomorrow and can no longer\u00a0be a fighter pilot,\u00a0he shouldn’t go out and commit suicide,\u00a0wallow in self-pity or be unable to see his existence outside of a jet.\u00a0 There is more to this life.\u00a0 While\u00a0there would be disappointment, the military Christian must be able to\u00a0stand up straight and ask God, “What would You have me do now?”<\/p>\n

A Christian’s\u00a0job as a fighter pilot is not the definition of who<\/em>\u00a0he is; it is but a fraction of what<\/em>\u00a0he is.\u00a0 It is also not a Christian’s duty<\/em> to be a fighter pilot.\u00a0 A military job<\/em> is often confused with duty<\/em>.\u00a0 By virtue of choosing a military\u00a0job<\/em>, fighter pilots have volunteered and vowed to accomplish their\u00a0duty<\/em>.\u00a0 There are times when a Christian may need to make sacrifices in other areas of his life to accomplish his military duties.\u00a0\u00a0A Christian should freely, even joyfully, sacrifice to accomplish his sworn duty.\u00a0 However, he should carefully examine those times when his job<\/em> demands such sacrifice, and do so with caution.<\/p>\n

Many military officers misprioritize their job, placing it above themselves and their families.\u00a0 Even military Christians sometimes put their job above God; to many non-Christian pilots, being a fighter pilot is<\/em> their god.\u00a0 For a Christian, being a fighter pilot must have its proper place\u2014an important aspect of a complete life, but ultimately just a job to accomplish.<\/p>\n

The Third Priority–but Still a Priority<\/strong><\/p>\n

Placing the job third in the list of\u00a0priorities is not meant to\u00a0imply that a Christian’s job should be considered a nuisance or something to be avoided.\u00a0 As noted in an earlier post<\/a>,\u00a0a Christian\u2019s loyalty, devotion, and work ethic are a direct result–and a direct reflection–of the priority he places on God in his life.\u00a0 A Christian cannot become a slave to his squadron, but he also cannot marginalize it.\u00a0 Work is not evil; on the contrary, it is divinely commanded.\u00a0 New Testament verses repeatedly state that those who do not work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).\u00a0 Even Paul, whose ministry spread the gospel throughout the world, continued to work as a tentmaker well into his missionary journeys (Acts 18:3, 5; 2 Thessalonians 3:8).\u00a0 A Christian fighter pilot should work at his job wholeheartedly, as though working for God and not men (Ephesians 6:7).\u00a0 He should put his best effort into the work he does and demand the highest quality results from himself.\u00a0 This will ensure that he presents a good image of himself and of the God he speaks so often about.<\/p>\n

A Christian also shouldn’t marginalize his job to focus his spiritual efforts somewhere else; the harvest is plentiful in the military\u00a0community.\u00a0 A Christian\u00a0who neglects his job to serve God elsewhere may devalue God to his coworkers.\u00a0 Ultimately, the importance that a military Christian places on his job needs to be placed in the proper perspective relative to all his priorities, including\u00a0his family and his God.<\/p>\n

Perceptions and Military Values<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere a military science instructor is rolling over in his grave (or, more accurately, falling out of his rolling office chair) because job<\/em> is\u00a0the third priority here.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, it is true:\u00a0 the second Air Force core value is Service before self<\/em>, and many would consider religious and family priorities to be self-oriented.\u00a0\u00a0Service before self means an officer puts the interests of the\u00a0nation above his own; that is, an officer doesn’t make decisions that benefit himself but harm the nation or the mission.\u00a0 In the plainest terms, service before self<\/em> means officers should not be selfish.\u00a0 When the needs of military service and the country are greater than the Christian’s own needs, then, yes, he should place service first; this goes back to the caveat that there are times that sacrifices and temporary adjustments must be made in priorities.\u00a0 However, each person needs to make sure that he is rightly interpreting what the service needs<\/em>.\u00a0 Does the military really need him to spend 80 hours at work a week?<\/p>\n

Service before self doesn’t mean that an officer continually neglects himself\u2014or his family, or his God\u2014for the service.\u00a0 A military\u00a0officer\u00a0can only deny himself so much before service suffers\u2014service<\/em> and self<\/em> are not mutually exclusive.\u00a0 People accomplish the mission, and if the priority of taking care of “self” (e.g., religious or family priorities)\u00a0is too low, then the military Christian\u00a0won’t be in any condition to perform his mission.<\/p>\n

Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts’ Head Coach Tony Dungy’s book<\/a> and life continue to be an excellent example of a person in an ‘enviable’ career field\u00a0who has not let his ‘job’ dictate the meaning in his life.\u00a0 The 2007 Super Bowl-winning coach said<\/p>\n

Football is great\u2026but football is just a game.\u00a0 It\u2019s not family.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a way of life.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t provide any sort of intrinsic meaning.\u00a0 It\u2019s just football\u2026 Although football has been a part of my life that I\u2019ve really enjoyed, I\u2019ve always viewed it as a means to do something more.\u00a0 A means to share my faith, to encourage and lift up other people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Military Christians–particularly those who are or want to be fighter pilots–would do well to learn from Dungy’s life perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third in a series of articles on military Christians and life priorities.\u00a0 The first addressed the necessity of the priority of God in a Christian’s life, and looked into the potential responses that others may have to that priority.\u00a0 The second emphasized the importance of a\u00a0military Christian’s family.\u00a0 The third priority of a military Christian should be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}