Quote:
Originally Posted by Blitzzz
You forgot what you asked for.
Originally Posted by JAH687 View Post
How has religion or spirituality effected your SF careers or your decision to join SF?
You asked about Religion and Spirituality. Faith is a different type of power all together, but the previous two require it.
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I, like you JAH687, was a wrestler in high school (3 years). Went to college for a few years, but partied too much, dropped out and joined the Army. After a year in, I knew ("the force" calling?) that I had to go the path of SF. Spirituality or religion had nothing to do with my decision to join SF.
It was my
faith in my physical and mental abilities that I would make it through SFTG (1968), to be one of the best, and I earned my Green Beret.
From the religious/spirituality aspect of your question, my upbringing had been geared toward Christianity, but college sort of skewed those beliefs. However, I still believed in a Supreme Being or God. Every time I was about to exit the aircraft, I would look up and say "please let this chute open correctly and give me a soft landing". Every jump the first request was granted, but the second one was not.
My dog tags originally had Christian, but the Army in its infinite wisdom decided that Christianity was not a bonafide religion and I had to have new tags that indicated Catholic, Jewish, or Protestant. Since I was neither of the first two and was not protesting anything, I had them stamped with "No Preference". This did not change my belief in God.
Life sometimes throws us curve balls or circumstances cause us to take side trails from the path we plan to travel toward our goal and we have to be flexible and adapt to the situation(s) while maintaining focus on that goal. While I did not make a career of SF, it was my SF experience that has taught me to think "outside the box", to have faith in my abilities and the abilities of my team members, and that mental attitude will help you overcome obstacles.
It is my belief in God and Jesus that has gotten me through the not so pleasant events in life. Whether or not one believes there is a God and an afterlife is a personal thing. I am a conservative. I believe that He is. Have I wasted my time thinking this way....I think not.
An atheist will say "there is no God and no afterlife". If this be true, then I am okay. Conversely, should there be an afterlife, then hopefully I am still okay, but the atheist is "going to be in deep doo doo". JMHO.
Not a day has gone by that I do not think about SF.
I, like Dusty, feel that "the reason I am still alive today is because his mission for me hasn't been completed".