Life is a Fight (Part 1)

Well, hello again, this is Dick Photh with stories to make sense of it all. Recording this on June 19th, 2020, it's sort of midway between Memorial Day on the one hand and July the 4th on the other, on June the 10th, 75 years ago, I was a little over three years old and I was standing on the streets of New York City with my parents. The year was 1945, we were on our way as a missionary family to South India, as missionary educators. They were the missionary educators, I was the kid just along for the ride. And there was a huge parade in New York City and the reason for the parade is captured in this clip, NewsReel Clip, from that day with the voice of a famous commentator in that day by the name of Lowell Thomas. Here it is. This arrival by air begins a record-breaking ovation, New York and General Eisenhower. As New York's Mayor LaGuardia, the commander of victory in Europe proceeds to the climax of its welcome home, New York is really set for a triumph. That must be the key to Brooklyn. In Central Park, tens of thousands of schoolchildren, miles of them along the line of the drive through the park. From Fifth Avenue, through immense cheering crowds, ladies control your enthusiasm. He personifies victory in the bitter war against the brutal Nazi enemy. So here I am, standing on the street looking at people's kneecaps. My dad, I'm sure, helped me up at some point and I was able to see what was going on. The Nazi regime had surrendered in May. The Japanese would surrender in August and this was at the heart of it and General Dwight David Eisenhower was a symbol of a soldier who had won. I want to talk about soldiering and freedom over these next three podcasts and we're going to try to get these next three out in the next three weeks. So we'll see how that works. And I want to begin by thinking about soldiers as warriors. Life, and I'm sort of capturing this in this phrase, life may be a journey, but it's also a fight. There are lots of things we fight through and fight for in our lives. And so I just take a snapshot of scripture and look at soldiers in the scripture just two or three that capture the idea of being a warrior and being a warrior who is touched by a deeper commitment than just to a nation or even to an ideal. It's very interesting to me in the gospels that when Jesus' life is coming to an end and he's on the cross that the text says in Matthew the 27th chapter, as Jesus died, there was a huge earthquake. And when the Centurion, this is Matthew 27 and this is Centurion and those with him who regarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, surely he was the Son of God. Here are holy scriptures that put sort of the affirmation or the validation of who Jesus was in the mouth of a soldier, the idea of putting those words in the mouth of a warrior, if you will, someone who was committed to obedience and devotion is just fascinating to me. When I think about that again, that idea, I think again of a Centurion. Centurion, by the way, in the Roman army, if a legion were 6,000 men, a Centurion had responsibilities for a hundred. A Centurion led the charge. They were to the Roman legions. I think in no small part what a Master Sergeant is in today's battle plans, people who lead men and women into battle, but they're at the tip of the spear, if you will. There's another passage in the gospels where Jesus commends the faith of a Centurion. He had been talking with some people and in Luke the 7th chapter, it says, when Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered the cavernium and there a Centurion servant, whom his Master valued highly, was sickened about to die. The Centurion heard of Jesus, sent some elders of the Jews to amast him to come and heal a servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. This is the Centurion. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the Centurion sent friends to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself, or I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but say the word in my servant would be healed for I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this when he goes and that when he comes and I say to my servant, do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turned to the crowd following him. He said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in all of Israel. So here is Jesus committing on a soldier who has faith, who trusts in him. I want to introduce you to one of those today. It is actually a soldiering family in a lot of ways. My friend's name is Kirk Foster and he is from Fort Collins, went to Fort Collins High School. He has a wife named Leah and two little girls and they currently live in Texas. But I met Kirk and also I want to speak to his mother. So I'm going to speak to Kirk and Leah today and then in the next podcast I'm going to speak to his mom. But let's meet Kirk and get a sense for who he is. I met him when he was 23 years old. That would be 14 years ago now and he was about to be deployed for the third time as an airborne ranger to Ramadi in Iraq and out of that came a friendship. So we've been friends for the last 14 years. He's been gone most of that time but I just really have come to appreciate him a lot. Here's Kirk. You're army, you're not just any old army, you're army airborne ranger. Are all rangers airborne rangers? That's right. Oh, if you're signed as 75th Ranger Regiment which are the actual Ranger units then you are airborne. I'm thinking to myself, I met you a number of years ago when you were 23 years old. How am I going to decide to be a soldier? I think I kind of always, always knew growing up I was always outside just playing pretend you know, soldier whether it be a knight or you know army military guy just wearing whatever camouflage, whatever toy guns I could find. So as a kid I think I was always just kind of playing army so I don't think it really shocked anybody. I think my family all knew that that was probably likely choice I was going to make and then it's time kind of moved on. I mean I did fine in school, I enjoyed you know sports, I just kind of knew I was always going to join the military. And you went straight out of high school 18 years old. So half your life you've been a soldier in your head, you were always a soldier apparently. Yeah, no, I just I was wanted to you know serve a there's a little bit of that excitement you know going out and challenging yourself to see you know how you would stand up and as I was getting close to make my decision I was kind of looking into all different units so I knew I wanted to do some type of special operations and then arrangers what I landed on is through my own research just knew that that was a unit I wanted to try to be a part of. You don't look mean. I'm just saying about your tough. I hope so. Definitely. Other people would say you are. Not so yeah I kind of get that a lot like I mean they think but just been able to know when that side that toughness needs to come through like right now with my daughters you know similar to like trying to switch. Yeah. So we're sitting here with with your little ones. One is year and a half. This is eight months and eight months and three and a half. So we're sitting here with your wife and with your mom. I'm going to talk to them now so you just stand guard over there and we'll just talk in those of you listening if you hear little people in the background. The reason is that there are little people in the background. Now let me go to that other warrior in the family. His wife Leah mother of two at home praying working caring for the kids while he's overseas deployed and here's my conversation with Leah. So what he's off doing what he's doing for the nation for us you're at home doing what? Everything you have to take on all the roles especially now with kids making sure that they don't feel a huge disruption in their lives especially and then you know I'm have to become the repairman and you know managing everything making sure everything stays together as best as I can and so that all he has to focus on is what he's doing over there. Right. So you're you're fighting to keep things normal. Yeah as much as possible. So so when he comes home let's say he's the leader right whatever he comes home you've been the leader. Yeah. And then he comes home. How does that go? I mean it's been a process I think of finding our groove with that and making sure that certainly maybe after the first couple of times that I knew how like when and where to step back. Sure. And that he knew when and where to step back giving ourselves that grace period to to find our new groove and let Hannah was the one that has been through separations the most and just her kind of figuring out who he is in her day to day and letting them kind of work that out together. Yeah. And you represent in a lot of ways you know thousands of military wives and any of the services and and the burden of fighting for a normalcy. I suppose even establishing and reestablishing who I am because it's this ever changing scenario. It isn't just that you're at home but you can also change locations right. Yeah. It's definitely a reinvention process that happens pretty frequently and we do have to kind of stop every so often and check back in with each other and figure out where we where we stay in different things and how we feel and so that we don't let this process separate us too much in a more relational sense than a physical sense. Yeah. And definitely you know going from girlfriend to fiance to wife to mom over the course of all these deployments I do change a lot and allow him you know him allowing me to do that and vice versa. So I had this interview with Kirk last fall in September of 2019. Let me insert this. What I haven't told you about him is this that he's a master sergeant in the army but as of this day of the recording today he graduated from the sergeant major academy and is on assignment to the 101st Airborne Division. Sergeant major in the US military is the highest level of non-commissioned officers and listed but a leader of men and women and significant responsibilities. So that's a great benchmark if you will, a right of passage for Kirk. But beyond that let me just tell you about his awards. He won't talk to you about this but I would talk to you about this. You get a purple heart if you're wounded in battle Kirk has three. You get a combination army combination medal if you do some significant things and he has two of those both with the additional V for valor and three meritorious service medals. It's really a significant thing if someone in the military in the army gets a bronze star for valor and battle Kirk has five and beyond that he has two silver stars both of which were awarded in the same month some years back. So you have the congressional medal of honor which is the highest award you have the distinguished service cross which is the next and then silver stars bronze stars etc. So I'm talking to a young man at age 37 who has served not only his nation but his Lord well in terms of his faith and how do you handle all that? How do you handle the kinds of things you see in war and our part of? You're decorated. You've been you have three purple hearts for wounds. I'm not going to ask you to show me where those are. Just between us we're good but you have a number of bronze stars you got a couple of silver stars. I mean when you're in the fight you're nothing a man I hope I get a bronze star for this you know that that's just stuff that other people recognize correct? Yeah and I would say that mentality can be very dangerous. I would think and that's why I always tell a lot of people when they do see like my amount of awards always like oh man I want to try to do that and tell them like no you don't you can do all these all these came with a price and I'd give them all back you know you know my buddies are still there so the things that you have seen in your youth you're still you're still young you know you're just a kid to me right I'm more than twice as old as you are. You've seen more of life and death than 99.9% of the world would see and you've had responsibility as you've already mentioned for having to take life in order to save life. Do it. Does that sound am I saying that right? Yeah I think that's a good way to kind of say it. So how do you process that because it's just the heat I know I know there are people who are totally broken down by way less than that how do you how have you process that over time how do you deal with it? Yeah I think it's definitely hard and right after it happened a lot of it was you know certain times it's always he's just trying to forget about it or you know block it out but as time's gone on I think about it more and then comes down to you know faith like I said at the beginning is you know this is what I knew I wanted to do you know because I was a little kid so I'd say God called me to call me to do so I think my actions in those circumstances you know as bad as they were they could have been worse had you know maybe someone that didn't have that faith and you know panicked or so I just tried I didn't try I did my best in each of those circumstances and you know for every reason I lived and you know a couple of my friends didn't but at the same time I took those lessons and tried to the next mission you know make sure we learn from it so so you so you you said this is like a calling like King David was a warrior that sort of thing or or Paul chained between two Roman guards and when he describes faith he says the helmet of this the breast plate of that each other in that that warrior life or mentality in any culture we need people like you to do things that we either can't or don't want to or too scared to is that fair to say I definitely think that's true so when these things happen how do you how do you deal I want to come back to that because some some of your free I mean PTSD is real right whether it's in war my wife Ruth collapsed with sudden cardiac test six years ago I had PTSD after you know this this stress in how do you how have you as far as you can tell how have you avoided that because some people go to counseling yeah I think I think for one is all those circumstances like I believed in what we were doing and I believed in my actions so I think you know the enemy you know I was able to eliminate the enemy knowing that those were the bad guys I mean it was killer be killed so that kind of plays into it like I I go to bed every night knowing that you know I did the right thing you know honorable so that that helps and then I'd say just talking about it with you know the guys that experienced it with you and that's kind of something I didn't do a good enough job I think initially but as I've so you've learned I've experienced that you know learn I try to make sure I explain that to some of the younger guys that go through similar events you know do just talk about it you don't necessarily need to go see you know a psychologist it unless that's what that you need but just talking about it with your bodies or someone's close to you someone that went through that similar if not same event I'm definitely helped but you do more than that you go out on the water right yeah you tell us that yeah and then I'll have in that one of my favorite hobbies is scuba diving so it's been a little bit difficult now I got two two young daughters but my wife and I both I even told this as we were kind of dating that she better get scuba certified because one of my ways of relaxing is after each to pulling it going some place tropical and then some time scuba diving just going down leaving it on the bottom yeah that's good way to put it and it gets a powerful metaphor I went to your wedding and I go over to sign the wedding register and there are pictures I think three two or three fellows in a ranger uniform they were your friends tell me about that and why were they there why were the pictures there do you mind telling me yeah no they were three bodies among Dylan Ryan and Ricky so just three guys that two were actually in my well all three of them were in my squad at one point two of one were killed you know right next to me just kind of we were in on separate missions one was in oh five in the other was in 2009 but again they were right there and in a firefight and they were killed and then my buddy Ricky was I switched to a different company he stayed in one and then he was killed on an appointment so yeah they're just three guys that you know I knew that you know had they still been around they would have been there at my wedding and also three guys that you know they sacrificed their lives so I had that opportunity you know to be married to my my beautiful wife and have the two daughters that I have now so and you're you're in the process of becoming a sergeant maker which is the would be the highest non-commissioned rank or officer in the corps you could have been an officer like you could have gone dose yes why didn't you do it in the pay better if you're like a major or something oh yeah not just a sergeant yeah pay is definitely definitely better as an officer but I'd say you just don't get that same day-to-day interaction with with all the the guys you know you from being that rifleman working away all the way up that's a more I just want to be more the the guy in the front lines you know that's what I like to try to do I've never went in thinking I'm going to be you know a leader necessarily I just wanted to be you know the best soldier I could be and that can you to move up but still like you know being being right there at the point of friction so always kind of state as the NCO your your father's a builder instruction big guy great athlete long the way I understood but when I talk to you it feels like that you're like the hands-on you like to design strategies and tactics and would that be correct when yeah I'd say yeah no I think the biggest thing I was think I want to think of my dad is his work ethic and kind of attention to detail that's really what I took from him is you know he's one of the harsh workers that I know yeah me too you see that his attention to detail and his his preparation a lot of that you know I think I take from him or you know he's probably first person I know it's up in the morning for parents 30 so I never have to worry about telling him too early so so in your 18 years in the military give me a couple of three things and again this is spontaneous just give it a go that you have learned about life about and what counts yeah no I mean I'd say it's you know something to treasure it's worth fighting for I think you know when you for me in my experience being so close to those kind of close calls you know I've appreciated life I think more than most people I mean I think a lot of people still do but I don't think you really can appreciate it the same way so every every second I get with my two daughters I'm extremely thankful even if it's the current one that's awake at 4.30 in the morning you know was he could get it but he's already gone oh no but yeah so I'm just extremely thankful for you know all the blessings I've had and just the time I get with with my family and I think the two kind of complement each other I want to I want to be the best dad and husband so I strive for that but at the same time that makes me you know a better army leader because when it comes time to training doing a job in the army it's you know you want to get down to business and do it do it right so you could make it back to your family and do it because you're missing that time you want to make sure your time you know is spent being productive one nice question so you're you're part of that war you're breed if I can use that phrase but you're also one of the I mean you follow the commander in chief you know you took that oath right that you raised your right hand when you're an 18 year old said I promise I pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies domestic and foreign and to obey the orders of my superiors from my immediate superior all the way to the commander in chief but you have another commander in chief that is beyond that one you're this you're one of those Jesus followers guys for Pete's sake how does how does your how has your faith and your trust in God played into your life as you're in the with the guys in the middle of battle word or just you know just hanging out whatever how does it plan yeah um I say it for me it helps me uh just like uh Psalm 140 once I think it's 140 um I just you covered my head in the day on the day of battle so I just kind of you know I know um that you know he's things are you know could always go poorly but I know God's looking after me and then just that faith in him and Jesus it kind of as I think gives me a little bit of a calm in those chaotic situations because you know I know uh you know worse case you know happens yeah I'm spending it eternity paradise so I'm I'm fine and that just kind of allows me to kind of try to my mind I don't think is as clutter as maybe I've seen other guys when that time hits sure um so so before before you're called to be a warrior you're called to follow him that's a good combination and that's chaplain striker which is obviously you know very famous army chaplain uh we did a prayer breakfast when he came down and spoke at a third rainbow time when I was there and he he trying to say how he worded but he said you know followed Jesus Christ it allows you to become the most dangerous warrior on the battlefield it's kind of something that really stuck with me and um it's definitely it's definitely helped me that's fantastic well Joe thank you for this talk more than that thank you for wearing the cloth of the nation for helping defend the nation but also protect our freedoms so we can talk about Jesus and have a podcast and put it on the air without fear of reprisal yeah and uh I'm grateful and I've been honored to know you these past 18 years and I look forward to the years ahead well thank you very much I'm happy to do I appreciate your friendship with the family especially to my dad and you know they're at at my wedding and then you know I'll never forget coming up and speaking with you they're out for went to Ramadi for that deployment so I was appreciated your your con words and your friendship god bless you thank you bye and life is not just a journey it's a fight and we fight through things and we fight for things we fight as Kirk does for an idea if you're listening to this in your military or former military you would recognize this language it's enlistment day a cluster of young people stand at semblance of attention and when told they raise their right hands and repeat after the officer I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution in the United States against all enemies foreign domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to regulations and the uniform code of military justice so help me God this is a pledge this is an oath a covenant not just a contract it's a covenant it's promise and and it's to an idea to defend the constitution in the United States so it it carries freight and weight and I have to admit not having served myself except one semester of Air Force ROTC in college that I am both touched and somewhat overwhelmed at the dedication and the men and women who help to provide for the common defense if I can phrase it that way so coming back to centurions people who lead you get to Acts 10 and a centurion a Roman is used by God to share the gospel with a whole other part of the world besides the Jewish people and then Paul he gets in all kinds of trouble when you read the book of Acts and he's being transported to Rome and the ship and the soldiers want to kill the prisoners they're transporting because if they could pay with their lives if the if the prisoners escaped and it's a centurion in Acts 27 that commands them not to do that and he saves Paul's life thank you to those who wear the cloth of the nation for what you are doing what you have done to keep the fight for freedom alive thank you for your faithfulness and your devotion and I just for one express my undying gratitude for what you have done so it's because of you that we get to have a podcast like this freedom of speech or that we get to go to houses of worship even if we do it long distance by video because of you and your commitment that happens and I for one I'm grateful God bless you thanks for your time we'll see you in a few days you