pull out the stops

Since this is my first entry I consider it appropriate to explain a little about myself. I am a southern guy at heart, born in Jacksonville, FL back in 1983. Ah yes, the 80's, what a wonderful decade... but we can save that for another entry. I moved to North Carolina when I was six and then to the great Hoosier state when I was seven. Lived in the region of Mishawaka until I graduated from high school, at which time I traveled the country/world with one of the greatest fighting forces in history, the US Army. Returned to Mishawaka numerous times in the past four years, basically to recuperate and then head out with my fellow comrades-in-arms to distant lands.

I will make this entry short, as I will have many future entries on which to expound on my personal life. I must say though, that I am who I am today only by the grace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have experienced quite a bit in my 22 years of life, and only one thing has remained with me wherever I've been, and that's my relationship with Jesus. I wanted to close by sharing with you a short paragraph that my pastor gave me just before I left for Iraq. It's an excerpt from a letter written by a missionary out in the jungles of New Guinea:

Man, it is great to be in the thick of the fight, to draw the old devil's heaviest guns, to have him at you with depression and discouragement, slander, disease. He doesn't waste time on a lukewarm bunch. He hits good and hard when a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by the one you get back. When you're on your back with fever and at your last ounce of strength, when some of your converts backslide, when you learn that your most promising inquirers are only fooling, when your mail gets held up, and some don't bother to answer your letters, is that the time to put on mourning? No sir. That's the time to pull out the stops and shout, Hallelujah! The old fellow's getting it in the neck and hitting back. Heaven is leaning over the battlements and watching. "Will he stick it?" And as they see Who is with us, as they see the unlimited reserves, the boundless resources, as they see the impossibility of failure, how disgusted and sad they must be when we run away. Glory to God! We're not going to run away. We're going to stand.

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it."
~1st Corinthians 10:13