I didn’t know what day it was or how long I had been in the hospital. I’d been in and out of consciousness for days. The hospital ward was hectic as new casualties arrived and others were moved to be transported home. Others were wheeled out, taken to the morgue.

I was aware of a nurse standing by my bed, holding my hand, looking at me with such compassion … and sadness. I was asking her why the ward was filled with clouds. It seemed so strange, but she didn’t seem to hear me. I began to shout; why couldn’t she understand me? Then I realized I was looking down on this scene as she stood by my bed.

It was years later when I learned how close to death I had been; that my soul was leaving my body. But God, in His mercy, gave this lost sinner another chance. People were praying for my soul and their prayers were answered. I was still alive, but it would be over four years before I finally humbled myself before the God who spared my life.

Twenty-three years later I found myself back in Vietnam, the place I vowed I would never return to. I was no longer a tormented, hurting, angry soul but a man with a peace only Jesus could give. God took away the guilt of surviving and the grief for my fallen friends. I was back where my life had been changed forever.

I was on a trail in a fishing village where a lifetime ago 11 Marines and a Navy Corpsman had died and one 18-year-old Marine survived. Kneeling on the trail, and surrounded by several returning veterans and my family, I had questions. “Why me, Father? The men who died were better men than me. Why am I here and not them?” There was no audible voice from Heaven, just silence as we all felt the solemnness of the moment in the stifling heat. The local villagers who gathered around us had not seen Americans for 14 years, and yet they knew it was a sacred moment for us.

Then, in my soul, I heard what Scripture refers to as “a still small voice” whisper to me, “Just be faithful to do what I’ve called you to do!” The memory of that moment still brings tears to my eyes. So, that’s my mission: be a faithful servant of Jesus. Go where He tells me to go and do whatever He tells me to do, like telling my former enemy that God loves Him and so do I. You cannot do that in your own strength. Only Jesus can heal your past pain and make you an instrument of His Peace.

So, my fellow Patriot readers, we all have a choice. Since the day I asked a God I did not know to let me live, I have been living on borrowed time. But all of us are living on borrowed time: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

You don’t have to be a prophet to see the darkness spreading across the nation. How will you use your time, talents, and treasure to impact God’s Kingdom around you? Don’t waste your time in this life storing up treasure on Earth; it won’t last. Only what we do for Christ in this life will last in the next. Chose wisely!

Something to pray about!
Semper Fidelis