In my last year at the Air Force Academy I developed the same question that I’m sure every Christian in their last year of college does:\u00a0 what is God’s will for my life?\u00a0 While we would all be commissioned in the military, the variety of options available to us meant a plethora of possible career\u2014and thus life\u2014opportunities.\u00a0 Lt Col Stokka, the Officer’s Christian Fellowship staff member at the Academy, taught a lesson to the first class cadets (seniors) that I’m sure he did every year.\u00a0 In it he basically taught that we shouldn’t only seek God’s will when we have a significant decision to make.\u00a0 Rather, we should strive to live as God would have us live everyday.\u00a0 This is rooted in Romans 12:2,<\/p>\n
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.\u00a0 Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is\u2014His good, pleasing, and perfect will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If a Christian reads the Bible, stays in prayer, and seeks God’s will everyday, then the decisions that he makes should be consistent with the will of God.\u00a0 Rather than depending on emotions and feelings\u2014what he feels God’s will is\u2014he should make his decisions based on the word of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lt Col Stokka assuaged some of our fears about our future assignments by relating some of his personal history.\u00a0 As an Air Force officer he faced reassignment every 2 to 4 years.\u00a0 The Air Force assignment system allows the military officer to create a list of ranked choices for upcoming assignments.\u00a0 Once that list is submitted, the assignment is at the Air Force’s whim.\u00a0 Ideally, they will be able to give the officer one of his choices, but there is always the caveat that “the needs of the Air Force” are paramount.\u00a0 If the Air Force needs a pilot somewhere he doesn’t want to be, he’ll still be assigned there.\u00a0 Lt Col Stokka related that as he approached these assignment opportunities, he prayed and sought God’s will about where God wanted him to go.\u00a0 Short of the voice of God telling him what to submit, he listed his choices based on thoughtful discussion with his wife and their life goals.\u00a0 Lt Col Stokka noted that he never felt that God was directing him to take or ask for a certain assignment; but, looking back, he could see how God had guided his assignments to bring him to the place where he was.\u00a0 Thus he didn’t always feel the finger of God pushing him along the way, but in looking back he could see that God had been guiding his path all along.\u00a0<\/p>\n
God’s Will in Pilot Training<\/strong><\/p>\n
Such “decision points” will occur regularly for the Christian fighter pilot.\u00a0 In pilot training he will need to choose between a fighter and non-fighter training track.\u00a0 The second phase of pilot training is designed to direct student pilots into the type of flying for which they showed the greatest aptitude.\u00a0 Based on class rank, student preference, and instructor pilot input, student pilots could go on to fly helicopters, the T-44\/CT-12, T-1, or T-38.\u00a0 The helicopter training was with the Army and was obviously for those who would go on to fly helos.\u00a0 The T-44\/CT-12 was a precursor for those who would fly the C-130; the T-1, for heavy airframes like tankers and cargo aircraft; and the T-38 was for those who would fly fighters and bombers.\u00a0 While for many the choice was obvious, I thought a long time about what I really wanted to fly.\u00a0 I didn’t particularly want to fly helicopters, but the thought of leading a crew into combat did make the C-130 track appealing to me.\u00a0 Each track also had its own distinct lifestyle, with pros and cons for personal, family, and professional life.\u00a0 Additionally, some student pilots considered their “follow-on” careers; they wanted to fly the military equivalent of a civilian airliner so that they could obtain the experience they needed to eventually land a comfortable airline job after leaving the military.\u00a0 Ultimately, I decided that flying a small, powerful airframe and delivering weapons on the enemy was what I wanted to do, and I put the T-38 track at the top of my list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As we completed pilot training we were ranked within our track, and we submitted our choices for what airframe we wanted to fly in the operational Air Force.\u00a0 A “drop” came from headquarters listing the aircraft our class was allotted.\u00a0 The leadership then took our preferences, rank, their own opinion, and airframe availability and assigned everyone an aircraft.\u00a0 In most drops there was also a requirement for one or two First Assignment Instructor Pilots (FAIPs), students who would be reassigned back to the training units as new instructors.\u00a0 As I considered the aircraft I could potentially fly, I decided I wanted to help the soldier on the ground, so my desire was to fly a bomb-dropping airframe.\u00a0 While the totally air-to-air F-15C held the potential for achieving aerial glory, as it would likely be the first to shoot down enemy fighters, it had no air-to-ground role and one more significant shortcoming:\u00a0 most conflicts in recent history had met very little air resistance, so the pilots of the F-15Cs had been utterly bored.\u00a0 Ultimately, my choices going into the drop were F-15E, A-10, F-16, FAIP, and F-15C.\u00a0 There were no F-15Es in our drop and only one A-10.\u00a0 On our assignment night we were notified of our new jet, and mine was an F-16.\u00a0 In less than two years I had experienced three significant decision points that would set the direction for the rest of my career.\u00a0 Each time I prayed that my choice was within God’s will.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Searching for God’s will is one of the great conversational topics within Christianity.\u00a0 If anyone ever publishes a book titled How to Know Exactly What God’s Will is for Your Life, it will be a bestseller if it contains even a modicum of truth (and perhaps even if it doesn’t).\u00a0 (Since I originally wrote this text, some books have come out trying to address that very topic\u2014and have had immense success.)\u00a0 One of many analogies I have heard describes the will of God as a field or park.\u00a0 The park is fenced and, if a Christian is striving every day to live in God’s will, he is free to roam in it; it has a variety of potential paths that he can take, and many activities to accomplish\u2014all equal before God.\u00a0 The Christian is free to make whatever choice he desires within the park, so long as he stays within it.\u00a0 As applied to life, this might mean that there isn’t one particular assignment that God wants him to have, or even perhaps one particular mate that he should marry.\u00a0 Within the will of God, there may be several acceptable choices for either.\u00a0 An Air Force pilot struggling to figure out which assignment God would have him take might be surprised to learn that God might not care.\u00a0 Assuming both choices are “within His will,” He may very well have a plan to bless and advance the pilot regardless of which choice he makes.\u00a0 Taking a path that is outside of God’s will, though, is like climbing over the park’s fence.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that fence is rarely as obvious as he might sometimes wish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AF Assignment System<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most Air Force officers “relive” this search for God’s will every few years as they work with the Air Force Assignment System.\u00a0 Because of the length and variety of training assignments, fighter pilots may go for 3 to 5 years before they even have to deal with the “normal” assignment system; prior to that, fighter pilot assignments are either automatic or are the result of class standing at the end of training.\u00a0 Therefore many young fighter pilots will make Captain\u2014a rank most consider mature\u2014and have no clue how to deal with the assignment process.\u00a0 The assignment system can be a challenging process for anyone to understand, though there are generally plenty of older pilots who will gladly offer their mentorship for younger officers considering their future assignments.\u00a0 Unfortunately, few view the military\u2014or even life\u2014the same way a Christian does, so their advice must often be taken with a grain of salt.\u00a0 I was assigned to my first operational base after two years of fighter pilot training at various locations.\u00a0 I wouldn’t have interaction with the assignment system until 6 months prior to my departure\u2014nearly 5 years (and a multitude of assignments) after I’d been commissioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of 2006 the Air Force is revising the assignment system for officers, though the general concept appears to have remained the same.\u00a0 A year before I was scheduled to leave my first assignment, I received notification that I was on the “vulnerable movers list” (VML), meaning I was eligible for a new assignment in a window of a few months.\u00a0 Before that window began, I needed to complete a Preference Worksheet (PW), which is now called a Transitional Officer Development Plan (T-ODP).\u00a0 The PW contained a rank-ordered list of the assignments I wanted.\u00a0 There was a segment for my comments, which enabled me to put down reasoning for the assignments I desired as well as communicate my long-term goals.\u00a0 The comments section allows officers to communicate specific details to his assignment team.\u00a0 For example, I know a pilot who adopted 2 kids and didn’t want to go remote due to the “bonding time” he needed with them; the officer included that information in the comments to help the assignment team give him an appropriate assignment.\u00a0 The last section of the worksheet was a space for my commander’s comments.\u00a0 This was the most important part; if the commander recommends that the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) deny an officer a particular assignment, it is unlikely (though not impossible) that he’ll get it.\u00a0 In general, the commander would let his subordinate know ahead of time for what he would or would not recommend him.\u00a0 Also, the personnel center did have certain metrics to meet; they strived to give people one of their top three choices.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Some officers try to manipulate the assignment process to game the system to control their careers.\u00a0 For example, while I was filling out my PW the pervading perception was that if a pilot was not a true “world-wide volunteer”\u2014meaning he would accept any assignment, including remotes\u2014then he hurt his chances of getting what he wanted.\u00a0 This led many people to say that they would accept a remote even though it wasn’t what they really wanted, just so they would look better in the eyes of AFPC.\u00a0 I heard a story about one pilot who put his real desire as his second choice because he heard no one ever got their first.\u00a0 Imagine his shock when he got his first choice, which he didn’t want at all.\u00a0 Regardless how the system changes over the next few years, the best advice I ever got regarding the Air Force assignment process was from an old flight commander.\u00a0 His advice was simple\u2014put down what you want.\u00a0 So long as an officer’s PW is consistent with his desires, the worst that can happen is that AFPC has to give him something not on his list.\u00a0 If he puts down fake choices in an attempt to game the system, AFPC may very well give him one of them\u2014will he then blame the Air Force for giving him what he asked for?\u00a0 If a pilot says he’s a remote volunteer to “sweeten” the opinion of him, AFPC may give him that very remote. \u00a0A Christian must acknowledge that he is not in total control of his future; when he attempts take control he is pulling it from the hands of his Creator.\u00a0 A Christian fighter pilot faced with an assignment decision must make prayerful choices and then, as difficult as it may seem at the time, let God handle the details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are many potential assignments that an Air Force fighter pilot may receive.\u00a0 There are operational tours, UPT instructor slots, staff jobs, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assignments, Air Liaison Officer (ALO) jobs that attach pilots to the Army, and others.\u00a0 Each has distinct challenges and varied impacts on a pilot’s personal and professional life.\u00a0 There are operational tours around the globe, with the expected potential deployments and commitments.\u00a0 In the F-16 world right now, receiving two consecutive operational assignments, or going “ops to ops,” is rare.\u00a0 Normally, operational assignments are alternated with other kinds of tours.\u00a0 UPT instructor pilot assignments are relatively “stable” tours\u2014a pilot is at one base for three years, and official travels are infrequent and short.\u00a0 The stability of the job generally gives a pilot the ability to be with his family regularly.\u00a0 Though stable, the days are long\u2014UPT IPs may fly as much as three times a day multiple days in the week, as well as attend to other duties.<\/p>\n
The non-flying staff job gets officers face time with higher ranks and commands, but it also tends to require long hours making paperwork and reports look perfect for someone else.\u00a0 While not faced with the demands of an operational fighter squadron, the demands of Generals and Colonels will draw just as much time, if not more.\u00a0 UAV jobs tend to be very much like fighter pilot squadrons without the imminent danger of flying.\u00a0 Deployments to dangerous locations still occur, though under somewhat different circumstances.\u00a0 In some cases, a small contingent will deploy with the aircraft while the rest of the squadron flies the aircraft via satellite from home station. \u00a0ALO jobs are unique in the opportunity to interact with the Army.\u00a0 An Air Force pilot is assigned to an Army unit and does everything with them\u2014including deploy should that occur.\u00a0 In combat, that pilot’s job is to coordinate the air support for the Army.\u00a0 Ultimately, every potential assignment brings its own inherent difficulties and challenges, both to single fighter pilots and those with families.\u00a0<\/p>\n
God is in Control<\/strong><\/p>\n
A Christian who lives in God’s will must take confidence in God’s control of his life, which is difficult for anyone to do.\u00a0 Giving up control\u2014”letting go and letting God,” as some have said\u2014is one of the more difficult things for a Type A fighter pilot to do.\u00a0 Fighter pilots (even Christian ones) tend to view the world very logically and mathematically.\u00a0 They hope that their hard work, effort, and diligence will be recognized and will be rewarded with increased rank and responsibility.\u00a0 They measure their accomplishments and anticipate a given sum:\u00a0 “I’ve done A, therefore I deserve B.”\u00a0 When life disappoints and the sacrifices do not bring the expected rewards, a Christian pilot risks developing a bitter attitude:\u00a0 “I’m making all these sacrifices and getting nothing in return;” “the people around me\u2014who are doing less and living easier, more carnal lives\u2014are getting by as well as, or even better than, I am.”\u00a0 His bitterness can easily become resentment because he feels slighted.\u00a0 He can start to view his life, his peers, and even his Christianity with scorn because he feels that he is suffering injustice.\u00a0 When he begins to feel justified in his contempt for the people and environment around him the potency of his Christianity evaporates.\u00a0 A bitter Christian is no more an asset to God’s kingdom than an atheist or a Buddhist.\u00a0 A bitter Christian has forgotten the sovereignty of God; his religion is based on a deity that isn’t all powerful, all knowing, and just.\u00a0 By accepting a negative attitude\u2014which is very easy to do in the Air Force\u2014a Christian can start down the slippery slope that leads to a bitter and ineffective life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were times in my career when I felt in my logical and mathematical opinion that I was being passed over for jobs I was due.\u00a0 I had hoped to be the Christian that God was obviously blessing, evidenced by the great professional success I was having, but instead someone else got the success.\u00a0 While men hope that God will reward them with success, they may work with all their heart only to see others advanced ahead of them.\u00a0 I must accept that I may not be recognized in this life.\u00a0 At times like that a Christian must not become discouraged but must remember that regardless of what happens\u2014someone is promoted over him, his hard work goes unnoticed, he is criticized despite his best efforts, whatever “injustice” he may suffer\u2014God has a plan for his life, and God is in charge.\u00a0 As the ultimate creator of his life, God has plans for him that only he can know.\u00a0 Because the Christian fighter pilot is a part of His plan, God won’t leave him flapping in the wind.\u00a0 For the Christian, there is an immense amount of encouragement in remembering that everything happens for a reason\u2014God’s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though they may experience happiness, grief, frustration, or joy, Christians must trust God over those emotions.\u00a0 While stereotypically fighter pilots fly by “the seat of their pants,” they are actually trained to trust their stoic, mechanical instruments over their feelings, because all five senses can fool a pilot’s brain.\u00a0 At night or in the weather, a pilot’s eyes, ears, and the seat of his pants can convince him that he is flying straight and level even if he’s in a turn, roll, or dive.\u00a0 It is a tragic fact that many pilots have died because their senses convinced them that they were flying safely when in fact they were hurtling toward the ground.\u00a0 Several years ago I was flying on the wing of a tanker after refueling.\u00a0 The tanker began a turn into me, and I became convinced that the tanker was turning steeper and steeper, making it impossible for me to stay with him.\u00a0 An instructor pilot on my wing keyed his radio and asked “2, everything all right?”\u00a0 As soon as he did, I checked my instruments and realized that the tanker was in fact in straight, level flight.\u00a0 Checking my instruments “caged” my brain, and I regained my awareness.\u00a0 What had happened was that the tanker had actually rolled out, but I had kept my aircraft in the same relative position to him\u2014I almost ended up directly above the tanker, convinced that he was rolling into me.\u00a0 A short radio call from my instructor and a quick check of my instruments enabled me to regain my composure and potentially saved my life.<\/p>\n
The loss of such awareness is called “spatial disorientation.”\u00a0 Because the sensory inputs are so strong, to combat the fatal effects of “spatial d” pilots are taught to depend on their instruments, which are calibrated, redundant, and provide a trustworthy frame of reference.\u00a0 Many pilots\u2014just as I did\u2014have “felt” like they were flying one way and have been saved when they saw that their instruments told a different story.\u00a0 Just as a pilot must depend on his instruments, a Christian must rely on his solid frame of reference.\u00a0 His senses, feelings, and emotions are not always trustworthy, which is why he must depend on what he knows is faithful:\u00a0 the constancy of God.\u00a0 While his mood may change for any number of reasons, God’s Word never changes, and he can take confidence in that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christian Fighter Pilot Ambition<\/strong><\/p>\n
Even though a Christian fighter pilot knows not to politic to advance himself, he is still faced with career pressures to succeed.\u00a0 A fighter pilot must accomplish military education, basic and tactical aircraft training, demanding upgrades, and a variety of other military functions to advance professionally.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many opportunities for advancement as a fighter pilot require a significant amount of self-assertion; in the simplest terms, it seems an officer sometimes needs to toot his own horn to get anywhere.\u00a0 Even before being commissioned I was warned by officers to make sure that I looked out for “number one” because nobody else would\u2014they’d be too busy looking out for themselves.\u00a0 Much to my dismay, I’ve sometimes found that statement to be true.\u00a0 Very often to be recognized Air Force officers must search out awards and submit their own name.\u00a0 If they hear of an award for which they feel they might qualify, it is often contingent upon them to research the award, write their own package, and submit their name.\u00a0 Superior officer recommendations are often written by the subordinate for the leadership’s signature.\u00a0 The necessity of self-promotion conflicts with a Christian’s inherent need to be humble and receptive, rather than assertive and diffusive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is a fine line between ambition and initiative that only the individual prayerful Christian can discern.\u00a0 Many fighter pilots have grown up dreaming of being nothing less than a combat ace, commander, or general.\u00a0 A person who sets his sights firmly on a prize can benefit from the strong motivation and drive to succeed.\u00a0 Unfortunately, such focus may bring danger with it.\u00a0 A Christian risks planning God out of his life and not even seeking His will or guidance.\u00a0 He may become so fixated that being a fighter pilot consumes his life and is his “idol.”\u00a0 Worse, when his goal is achieved and he becomes what it is he desired, he will be tempted to think that he has “made” himself.\u00a0 Excessive ambition may drive his life away from God, and a lack of sufficient ambition may cause his career to stagnate.\u00a0 Career advancement is necessary for both professional and spiritual reasons.\u00a0 Most obviously, if an officer fails to progress professionally, the military will fire him.\u00a0 More subtly, a Christian’s degree of professional advancement has a direct impact on his witness.\u00a0 If an outspoken Christian fighter pilot is successful in his career as an officer and a pilot, his witness gains immediate credibility\u2014particularly if he gives the credit for his success to God.\u00a0 If he is slow or fails to advance, regardless of the reason, his mediocre performance in a world of successful stand-outs could be a detriment to his spiritual witness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Christian does not need a complete lack of ambition; he must simply prevent ambition from consuming him.\u00a0 That task is hardly “simple” for the Christian, and there is disagreement even in the Christian community about the appropriate level of Christian ambition.\u00a0 Paul notes in Galatians that “selfish ambition” is “obviously” an “act of the sinful nature,” but a healthy degree of ambition can provide a drive to succeed and achieve goals (5:19-21).\u00a0 I believe a Christian can express interests in jobs and advancement opportunities, and he can work everyday to do his best and show his ability to handle more rank and responsibility.\u00a0 He can and should search out and apply for positions or schools in which he is interested; goals are admirable.\u00a0 However, when he tries to manipulate the system and slides into the single-seat cockpit of his career he pushes God out of it.\u00a0 Instead, he should express his career and job desires clearly to his superiors and then concentrate his efforts on doing his job well, allowing God to control promotion, advancement, and recognition.<\/p>\n
Certainly there is nothing wrong with taking actions and making prayerful choices that are consistent with personal desires\u2014assuming that the Christian believes those desires to be within God’s will for him.\u00a0 In fact, when it comes to the direction a Christian’s life will take, it is unlikely that God will divinely commandeer the military assignment system, so at some point the Christian fighter pilot will still have to make a wise and informed decision.\u00a0 God has given man a heart and a brain for a reason; he is to wholly depend on God, but he is also to make wise choices.\u00a0 Though this sounds like he is to be an independent creature totally dependent on God, there really isn’t a contradiction.\u00a0 For example, I believe that God protects me, but I still look both ways before I cross the street\u2014I trust God, and I attempt to make wise choices.\u00a0 God has given men the ability to make choices and subsequently reap the consequences of those choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Living God’s Will<\/strong><\/p>\n
To live out his life a Christian must make decisions; he can’t merely sit on the couch and demand that God make His will happen.\u00a0 Some use to say that “God helps those who help themselves.”\u00a0 Whether that adage is true or not, there is some basis for human initiative within God’s will.\u00a0 There is a popular uncredited joke, told in many variations, about waiting for God’s action in life.\u00a0 In the simplest version, a man is caught in a flood, and as the waters begin to rise, a car comes by to carry the man out.\u00a0 He refuses, saying he’ll wait for God to save him.\u00a0 The water rises to his doorstep, and a Good Samaritan in a boat comes by to help him out; the man says he’ll wait for God to save him.\u00a0 The water continues to rise and the man is soon forced onto his roof.\u00a0 A helicopter is dispatched to pick him up, but still he says he’ll wait for God to rescue him.\u00a0 The water eventually covers the house and the man drowns.\u00a0 When he arrives in heaven, he asks God why He hadn’t rescued him.\u00a0 God’s reply:\u00a0 “What are you talking about?\u00a0 I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter!”<\/p>\n
“Waiting for God” does not imply inaction on the Christian’s part; often, he must prayerfully step out in faith first, and only later will he see how God was working in his life.\u00a0 He can’t pray “God, I really want to cross the street,” and then do nothing until God sends angels down to carry him across.\u00a0 After all, God parted the Red Sea but the Israelites still had to walk across.\u00a0 In the same way, a Christian can’t pray, “God, I want to be the world’s best fighter pilot” or “a four-star general” and then take no initiative to that end.\u00a0 He should not take control of his life toward that goal, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t work toward it, if he prayerfully believes that it is within God’s will for his life.<\/p>\n
Return to<\/em> God and Country<\/a>.
\nGo to<\/em> ChristianFighterPilot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In my last year at the Air Force Academy I developed the same question that I’m sure every Christian in their last year of college does:\u00a0 what is God’s will for my life?\u00a0 While we would all be commissioned in the military, the variety of options available to us meant a plethora of possible career\u2014and thus life\u2014opportunities.\u00a0 Lt Col Stokka, […]<\/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-95","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\/95","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=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}