Asking the RMT to Plumb Line Your Spiritual Fitness

When the inevitable turmoil, instability and transitions of Marine Corps life make things hard, lonely or frustrating for you, how do you take measure of such feelings? Your unit’s chaplain and Religious Program Specialist (RP) make up the Religious Ministry Team (RMT) who specialize in helping  you find ways to view such life challenges and annoyances as an opportunity for a self-check or recalibration of your own Spiritual Fitness level.  

Spiritual Fitness just means “the ability to adhere to beliefs, principles and values needed to persevere and prevail” (Spiritual Fitness Guide for the USMC). You don’t need to wait for a chaplain to ask you some good questions like these: 

• What are the core beliefs and principles that lie behind your own inner strength and resiliency? 
• Have you considered how you engage your world with meaning and purpose?
• What shapes your moral decisions?
• How do you uphold the ability to respect and to forgive yourself and others?

I recently read a bit of Biblical wisdom in which a famous prophet had this vision: “…Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people…” (Amos 7:8b). Do you know what a plumb line is? The Latin word for lead is plumbum. Plumbers (historically at least) are workers of lead pipes. A plumb line is a line of string with a heavy weight (e.g., made of lead) on one end and used to measure a wall’s trueness to the perpendicular (e.g. whether it is straight and strong). Builders now are more likely to have a “level” tool or a laser to measure straightness. But for thousands of years, a plumb line’s lead weight and gravity made it a superb standard by which the straightness of a wall could be tested and measured. To plumb something is to measure its depth (e.g., ocean) or to make sure a wall or building is straight, level, secure and trustworthy. A leaning or bulging wall will not be uniformly distant from the plumb line, and that signals danger that the wall could collapse or be easily toppled.

Whether you believe in God or not, do you have a set of plumb line values, principles and beliefs in the midst of your life to help you to make wise and honorable decisions, even under tremendous pressure or frustration? Your chaplain and RP would love to talk with you about how such reflection can help you to persevere and prevail.

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