I mentioned last post that I had made a decision to step away from service at church for a bit. A bit of fatigue certainly contributed to the decision. I think feeling overwhelmed with a lot of noise from life is another.

I ended up being so involved trying to be a good servant that, in some ways, through that time, I lost my bearings a bit. I think I put it, “I lost my heart.”

Losing my heart is not a product of serving at church. Certainly not. Service is pretty essential in a mature person, because maturity involves living for something greater, and also being attached to the whole. There is the danger of serving to the extent that you get lost, though. Service is best when it is a fruit of love and calling. While I think my efforts started there, the calling blurred somewhere along the way. And the love dried up a bit.

Instead of feeling stronger as a servant, I’ve struggled with feeling weaker. Instead of being filled up through giving, I’ve felt depleted.

And so the sabbatical is necessary at times. Jesus went out into the wilderness with his chillin’ buddies to drink beer and party? No. he went out alone, to clarify his mission, and his vision.

One of my favorite sites on the web is the Art of Manliness site, because it really does a good job talking to man things.

One of my favorite films ever remains the Hanks/Spielberg collaboration, “Band of Brothers”, if in part because it presents us with a heroic core of men who discovered heroism if not wholly due to their commission, then due to their commander, Dick Winters.

I was happy today, then, when I came across an article on the Art of Manliness that featured him, called “The Way of the Monastic Warrior: Lessons from Major Dick Winters”. In it, the author highlights a number of qualities that fed into Dick becoming such an exceptional leader and soldier.

Dick grew up determined to be a quality guy, and he set some things out in his life to become that man.

The article goes over a number of things, but a few of them stood out.

• Dick sacrificed socializing and running around as a young man to study
• Dick exercised vigorously at an early age, and continued to do so during and after his time in the service. To him, toughness was a product of physical fitness.
• Dick decided early on that moral care fed into personal strength, and committed himself to avoid foul language regardless of circumstance.
• Strength is built from within, and not from without. Dick took a lot of time in solitude to practice becoming the thinker and planner he would become as an officer on the battlefield.
• Dick learned that any job worth doing was worth doing well, and to completion. He did not allow himself shortcuts, and he did not quit things he started until they were done. His commitment to task and to getting things done he held as a point of pride.
• Dick took pride in where he was from, and who and what he was attached to. He was as motivated to not disgrace those around him as he was to do his best in what he did for himself.
• Dick chose the harder paths that would put him among the men who would be stronger and tougher in the military. If he wanted to be surrounded by strength, he had to be near it.
• Dick set and maintained his priorities throughout his life. While in the service, he was a soldier, and had no time for a beau.
• Dick wanted to be the best person that he could be.

Perhaps one of my favorite stories from the article was that which said when he first got to England 9 months before the D-Day invasions, on the Sunday of the first weekend, he went and found and attended a church. After the service, he went and sat in the cemetery nearby it to pause and think. An English couple in the church saw him and went over and talked to him. They hit it off well, and each weekend, Dick returned to services at that church. That couple had had a son killed in the war, and here was this young American officer joining them in worship.

When the army asked local residents if officers might billet with them for a spell, the couple- the Barnes- said sure, as long as they could have Lieutenant Winters.

At the Barnes, Winters became their son for a short time. In the evenings before the couple went to bed, they would all meet for tea, and Mr. Barnes would read from the Scriptures and then pray with them.

Winters said this was one of the most valued experiences he had in the war.

And while his fellow soldiers spent a lot of time running around the area, in pubs and chasing gals when they were allowed to, Winters studied.

And ran.

And read.

And prayed.

During the 9 months he was in England, he missed church services only three Sundays.

It’s not that he was a good church attendee that I find important here.

It’s that here is a strong man who is not ashamed to go to church.

And while there, he found life and encouragement and comfort in it.

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I am grateful for a season of rest. I am looking for my heart. I am grateful for strong men who are also good and live according to codes.

I’m looking in the quiet for the focus I have put down somewhere, and largely lost in the noise.

Thank you, Major Winters, for your service- and your example.

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Source Article: “The Way of the Monastic Warrior: Lessons from Major Dick Winters”, artofmanliness.com