Lyle's Blog

Every day, seventeen veterans commit suicide. I am a veteran, but I didn’t serve in any wars. However, I did hear some of what some experienced after returning to our base. I’ll only reflect on one story.

Private Nance was out on patrol with a friend. Those you serve with are your only friends. Suddenly, Nance was covered with his buddy’s brain matter, blood, and flesh. As I sat on the steps and listened to his story, I realized I had nothing that could help him. I was twenty-one years old, just like him. As I remember, he shipped out for home soon after; I hope it was home.

In basic training, you’re made aware that you are a body and the military needs bodies. Believe me, the military knew what Nance had experienced, but bodies are just bodies, and there’s always a duty station that needs another body.

I don’t know what veterans are offered these days, but the many suicides a day tell me it’s not enough. There are thousands of homeless veterans, and it’s troublesome that half of our elected leaders would rather support those who have no allegiance to this country. Three hundred fifty dollars hotel rooms, EBT cards, and healthcare for migrants who illegally cross our border seems like a slap in the face.

The left undermines our respect for citizens’ rights and, over the years, has gained a stranglehold on education, media, and government bureaucracy. Fortunately, Elon Musk acquired Twitter and transformed it from a government propaganda outlet into a genuine platform for free speech. Now, at least our voices can be heard. We live in an “echo chamber” society, and the insane lunatics won’t even look at what goes on under their noses.

Millions of drones still support the bankrupt system of the past, and they vow to violently protest the cleanup of the system and the return of law and order. They are slapping us in the face, and the duel is on.

In the meantime, veterans, along with the rest of those suffering government persecution, languish in darkness till the self-serving public humbles itself and decides to do the right thing.

I’ve been run down of late, just plain tired. I went to my doc, had blood tests, a vitamin B shot, and an X-ray. The X-ray saw something, but what? So let’s do a CAT scan. The day after I get back from Missouri, it’s all set.

Have you ever wondered what the last thing your eyes will see is? I imagine that all the time because I know it’s coming—not yet, but someday. We know how to get ready for that moment, but don’t we think it’s always a ways off? I turn out the lights, I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord, my soul to keep.

If I should die? He will take me, won’t He. I offer a half-baked prayer, hoping to appease the Maker of the Universe. I pray, Lord, if I don’t wake, take me home, take my soul. How many times have I lain down to sleep and just assumed everything is OK between God and me? Am I fooling myself? I’m soon to be seventy-seven years old. I probably have a few years left. But am I really ready to meet Him? Sometimes the dark is very dark.

When you’re young, reflection can be the impetus for beneficial change. We can learn from our mistakes or improve our design for a better mousetrap. When we’re old and well past the time of delivering on the promise of youth, if we’re honest, we can see clearly the past, present, and future.

I’m from a small town in North Dakota. We lived in the area through elementary school. For reasons our young minds didn’t understand, we were leaving it all, and our family was thrust into the big city of Seattle. The move changed everything. Children adapt pretty well; after all, play is simple, it’s just accessorized with more tools. We lived in the “country” for the first couple of years and then found ourselves in the bedroom community of Renton.

Once in a while, I’ll check back in on Wahpeton, my hometown. The local news stories are about the tornado drill the city had planned, local athletic games, and hometown stuff. The prom had happened, and in that copy were some prom pictures. I’m not interested in proms (I never had a girlfriend and for sure didn’t know how to dance), I wanted to see the “cream of the crop” of young people coming out of Wahpeton.

Wahpeton’s population has remained stable over the years. The State School of Science keeps it alive. The good news, it’s alive! The prom pictures paint a picture of an America we had in 1959. No tattoos, piercings in annoying places, and smiles that looked like real smiles, eyes full of the future. Perhaps, Wahpeton is one of the flickers of light that has kept the hand of God at bay.

Hope is not lost if you look into the eyes of those who have it. Believe it or not, you can get hope digitally. Wahpeton, try some, you’ll like it!

Easter is just ” around the corner”. For some, it’s eggs and a great dinner; for others, it’s remembering the price paid for our salvation and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The question for many is, do we need saving? I meet people that are kind, generous, and wonderful souls. There are those born with huge abnormalities and a lack of understanding of fundamental things. I’ve seen the girl with two heads, children with Down Syndrome; you get the picture. Lots of nice, innocent people who don’t know or even care to know of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says those whose names aren’t found in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Some claim to understand God. I don’t. Yes, we see him in Jesus Christ, but God’s ways are above our ways. Do we really think that we can understand anything much about the One who put the universe together?

Through Christ, we can know the love of God, but not the mind of God. Our minds cannot conceive of what God will do for us because we love Him. We have no idea. We’re looking through a glass darkly. When we step off the ark, which is Jesus Christ, we shall see Him as He is.

The question is, do we really believe that the majority of the world will be cast into the Lake of Fire? I we did, wouldn’t we be diligent and serious about spreading the gospel? Was Jesus really who He said He was?

Noah was a man of exceptional ability and belief in God. Imagine spending decades building an ark just because God said so. It was a dirty, somewhat discouraging task. Just staying alive in those days must have seemed hopeless. Noah and his family were the only ones on earth God deemed worth saving. The Bible says that Noah found favor with God because he was righteous. Noah found grace. God gave mankind a second chance because one man and his family were worth saving.

When Noah left the ark, he built a vineyard for himself. It takes three years to get a crop of grapes and make your first cup of wine. Noah tended those grapes for three years, crushed them, and made his first of too many cups of wine. He became drunk, shed his clothes, and subsequently passed out in his tent. I witnessed this activity many times while serving in the military.

You could say that Noah had never tasted wine before and was therefore not aware of how it would affect him. Having lived among the most unsavory men before the flood, I’m sure he was aware of what wine could do. They looked foolish and stupid; their drive to drink to intoxication was impossible to understand. It wasn’t until the crucible of living in the ark that he seemed to understand being driven to drink.

I think Noah had that vineyard in mind the whole time he was on the ark. Noah knew wine numbed the mind, and he needed some of that numbness as soon as possible. After three years he was so ready, ready to destress after a hundred years of an ark-centered life. Growing a vineyard from scratch to grape takes three years. He knew that fact. He had no Holy Spirit to comfort him, no personal relationship with Jesus, that is, someone who could relate to life on earth. His flesh desired relief, if just for a little while, just divorce himself for a few hours from the reality of his dutiful service.

Noah was a righteous man, but he was still a man, just like us. No matter how “holy” we get, how much we get our act together, we’re still sinners saved by grace, just like Noah. For us, the ark’s been built. All we have to do is invite our neighbors to come aboard. On this ark, there’ll be singing, dancing, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the wine? It’ll be new wine. It won’t numb our minds; it will glorify our lives. Cheers!