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Chaplain's Corner

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Where your boots have been

6 May 2022 | Lt. Cmdr. Jason P. Ulven Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

Both knowing where we’re going and where we’ve been is essential to knowing our place in the world and being content right where God has us. This, of course, makes me think of my boots. Many, many years ago, I was issued a pair of coyote-brown boots to wear with my Navy cammies. I’ve worn those boots around the world five times and they have the dirt from four continents pressed into their fibers. I love those boots!

My boots tell the story of where I’ve been. I can look at them and remember deployments, FOBs visited, flights made, port calls and sketchy situations. I’ve worn my boots through a thousand conversations with Sailors and Marines just like you, and prayed with hundreds of people while wearing these boots. When I reported to 6th Marine Regiment last summer, I was no longer able to wear those boots. Which was probably for the best since there’s no tread left under them and I slide around violently on freshly mopped floors.

It’s important to remember and reflect on where we’ve been. In Deuteronomy 4, Moses is calling God’s people to obedience. He’s reminding them of how good God is and how they’ve been blessed to have God guiding them to the promised land. He’s giving them official guidance for the direction they’re going. Then in verse nine, he reminds them of the importance to remember where they’ve been and what they’ve learned from the past.

He writes: Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children.” Deuteronomy 4:9

When Moses tells his people not to “forget the things that your eyes have seen,” he’s directly telling them to remember their history, to remember how God has seen them through years of challenges, and to remember to pass on these lessons to their children. I think this message is perfectly relevant to where we are today. In recent months and years, we’ve been through a pandemic, race issues, isolation, a politically divided nation, among dozens of other hardships. Yet through it all, God remains the same. His love for all of us hasn’t changed at all. We would be wise to remember where we’ve been and remember how God was there all along.

Once again, hear Moses’ words, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen…” How sweet would it be if years from now we can look back and say, “God was right there when everything seemed to be upside-down.” And then for us to tell our children, and our children’s children about how wide, how long, how high and how deep God’s love for each of us is.

The Chaplain’s Corner covers everything faith related. Facts not attributed are purely the opinion of the writer.