I was reminded again this morning of my thoughts on the decline of the American military when I saw a few Airmen walking to work with their hands buried deep in their uniform pockets. Am I being overly dramatic? I’ve said it here before – these little things are the cracks in the foundation. The foundation? A discipline that fosters professionalism and serves as that one small thing that could push a person on to doing their work with precision and urgency without panicking when it counts the most.
The US military has done much to garner the praise and perks that came to it in the past, but now I’m thinking, “what have you done for me lately?” It seems that the leaders itself don’t know. Now, they’re just stuck looking for ways to attract new recruits, and this at the price of jettisoning some of those things that set them apart.
Hey, this kind of thing might work on a high school marching band, but not when the stakes are so high. Perhaps, however, they’ve forgotten the stakes. Maybe they got a taste of it in the Middle East – our last great victory there being the first Gulf War when we demolished what was supposed to be one of the world’s most powerful armies. But it’s been downhill from there to the point now that we let drones do most of our fighting for us. And so, why not put your hands in your pockets? It doesn’t hurt anyone.
But for this – having the discipline to keep your hands out of your pockets says more than you think. Why have the rule in the first place? Because leaders used to be able to recognize the value of being a different kind of person – and thus, a different group of people that formed a cohesive unit with a common cause.
Set apart.
But if you turn your back on that to make your organization just like the rest of the world (even going so far as to dump your uniform on Fridays), you lose something that would actually matter if the chips were down. When people die.
Overly dramatic? These are the stakes. That is, if we have the fortitude to put our lives on the line for something in which we firmly believe.
I’m reminded here too of the Church, and it seems much of the same – innocuous changes that one would think would make the place more attractive, but in reality just weaken the organization by diluting its message. It becomes more about the programs and the perks than the mission. It’s a deceptive kind of evangelism that shouldn’t be a church’s focus – trying to play on (what used to be) the typical American’s feeling that they should at least make an effort to appease this “God” every Sunday. They do this hoping that maybe someone will get something out of that tiny little piece of what the Church offers called a sermon. So much easier than actually going out and preaching Christ within and while serving their community.
The Church, too, should be set apart. It should be different. In the cases it is, it often thrives. When it comes to spiritual matters, people don’t want more of the same thing. More of the world. They want something that means something. Something that calls them into account. To ask for less is to ask for complacency.
Some organizations demand this – to be set apart. In these cases, to be anything else is to fail.