My Purpose

My purpose

Today at Center Church in Pharr, TX during the men’s bible study and watching the video by John Bevere on the subject of “Following your Calling”. As I was watching the video and listening to John Phillips I know the direction God is pushing me. Just yesterday Major Claudia Noyola US Army Ret asked me to lead a BUD/s (Navy SEAL) PT with the one group of JROTC students that didn’t get a chance to work out with me the first two weeks of January. I had learned my own lesson in leadership since the last time and I had the students line up four abreast and I told them “If you can’t keep on an exercise, just stand up”. We got right to it and had plenty of time to talk with them a little bit and get the whole workout in. I have other experiences where I taught boxing or at least PT with junior high and high school students since 1985 and even before if you consider working with younger boxers while training with Roy Jones Sr. I feel compelled to do this for a couple of reasons. What makes the working out with these younger people so rewarding is at that point when they pass me up. Roy Jones Jr., my son Devin and Shane Reilly who used to hang out at the base pool in Pensacola and he went on to become a Navy SEAL. Then other purpose is to instill courage in their faith. If I can gain their respect and they hear me talking about faith, it is a foundation for them to talk about their faith too.

One of the things I witnessed as a Navy SEAL was that the majority of Navy SEALs come from broken families. They are forced to develop their own self-reliance and it causes them to gravitate towards strong male role models, hence the SEAL Teams. While I was at SEAL Team One there was a tech in the Communications department who was raised by his father. He was a little skinny guy but he didn’t take any guff off of anyone, no matter how big and bad they were. He could keep up in PT, swimming and he was faster than most of the SEALs on the runs. He didn’t need a Trident to be significant, he had the influence of his father who raised him which is the foundation he stood upon. I remember when I first came to understanding that Jesus Christ is real, I wanted to tell everyone. Then my mother in-law told me “New Christians should be locked up”. Here she was the choir director for the Catholic Church. Then my wife who group up in the Catholic Church her whole life told me “We are supposed to witness through our actions”. I was confused. I wanted to tell the world and I really didn’t care who liked it or not. Well I learned, when I went to the Indian Ocean as an anti-piracy security agent with my bible and other Christian books to read I was confronted by the other former Navy SEALs who proudly proclaimed that they were atheists and agnostic I just told them “That is because you are young, you will figure it out”. They didn’t like that! They really didn’t like me after that. It wasn’t until another former Navy SEAL buddy of mine had a similar experience told me what happened to him that I put two and two together.

Today at the men’s bible study, I remember when I was training Ryan McDonald and his friend Jonathan how to box at the base gym in Pensacola, FL. The PT failures had to do their mandatory PT. I told Jonathan and Ryan “Look at them and tell me what you see?” They said “They have to have someone else make them do what they are supposed to do anyway”. That was amazing to me, these kids see the problem as plain as day. I went on to tell them never to let that happen to them. Now that I am older that lesson means more to me than it did them. I now understand how sugar and salt have a direct effect on joint pain. I have witnessed my SEAL buddies let themselves go and even die because of it. I am hoping that as an example of how a man can stay fit and not be afraid to speak about my faith that the young people I come in contact with would be able to model both examples and have enough confidence to speak about their faith in the Lord and not doubt. Now I have to get back to my algebra until I have enough understanding and confidence to also transfer it to these young people.