"Not a Matter of Salvation"

We were in the middle of a swamp in western Florida and were talking about the things that had happen in his life over the last couple of years. He had had some business difficulties. He and his wife were having problems. A child of his was not doing well in school. We talked for a while and I ask him how he was handling it all. And he replied rather casually, "Oh, it's not a matter of salvation." I must admit I was taken back a little. I admitted to myself that he was right, of course. These were not matters of eternal determination. The future of his eternal soul did not depend on how he handled these problems. At least, not according to the theology out of which he was working. But I did wonder what it would take to get him a bit more invested and riled up about the affairs of his life. If the issues before him now were not of great importance, when would there be an issue important enough for him to care.

That memory came back to me as I finished Sebastian Junger's WAR. Mr. Junger was an embedded journalist in the most exposed outpost of the Afghan war for two years. He writes brilliantly about why soldiers find combat so exciting and addictive. That there is no greater adrenaline rush for the human body than being ambushed on patrol. He thinks there is no great bonds of affection than the members of a platoon. Mr. Junger particularly writes about the fact that it is great distant between my friend's nonchalant attitude towards life and the passionate focus on life in a platoon that makes it so hard for soldiers to come home.

As Mr. Junger describes life in the forward combat area, everything is a matter of life and death. The failure of one soldier to secure his canteen properly might make a noise that would give away the patrol and get the unit attacked. Everybody checked on everybody because every body's life depends upon everybody caring enough to make sure they did it right. Everything matters. It may not be a matter of salvation in the eyes of God. In fact, Mr. Junger suggest that God does not seem very near or important to the soldiers where he was. But everything sure as hell is a matter of life and death. That makes everybody know how important they are. They matter immensely. Every body's life depends on everybody else and so they value every body's every move and action.

Mr. Junger says when you have had that kind of validation and significance for two years it is incredibly tough to come home to a life where "it is no big deal. It is not a matter of salvation." To come home to a society that seems to care very little about anything. AA meetings, Narcotics anonymous, combat. What an amazing irony that the places that look the most like what a church is supposed to look like actually look like hell.