Walk the talk said John

Sundays are generally good days on the boat. The protestant worship service starts at 10, and if I don't have anything scheduled, I can generally sleep in until just before the service. The nice thing, the ship is pretty quiet on Sunday mornings. They don't run drills (with their associated 1MC chatter), they don't pipe revile (rarely wakes me up anyway), and we usually don't fly too early. The ship has two protestant chaplains and the airwing ("CAG") has one. The senior protestant chaplain is from a Lutheran background, and the other (a friend of mine from USNA) is Southern Baptist. The airwing chaplain is Methodist. Makes for an interesting liturgical experience. The Chaplain Corps training does a pretty good job of establishing a common baseline for their pastoral techniques, but their roots shine through. I enjoy the uniqueness of Chaplain, and the strengths they bring to lead the faithful and the curious. This morning CAG Chaps gave the sermon, from 1 John Chapter 2. He talked about the importance of our walk as Christians matching our talk. Our love for Christ is shown in our obedience to Him and His Word. The beauty of it is, God knows we're not perfect--that we can't be completely obedient all the time. We make mistakes--we sin. We sin against each other. We sin against Him. But in our Sin, God showed His ultimate love for us--that's why Jesus came! He stands before the Father on our behalf, having taken our sins upon his shoulders, and he took our punishment on the cross. Not just my sins or your sins, but the sins of all the world! (1Jn2:2). So, he has done this amazing thing for us to show his love--but why? So that in our salvation, we can bring Him glory! Where does that salvation come from? God tells us in Romans 11:9 that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Salvation comes before obedience, but obedience must follow, in order to grow in maturity and love. So, that's where I am, continuing to grow in maturity and love--love for Christ, love for the people around me, even to grow in how I love Janell and the girls. Lord knows I have much to learn. And I continue to learn some lessons over and over (or at least I keep getting the lesson over and over). Needless to say, I enjoyed Chaps' lesson this morning.

The other thing I like about Sundays is the brunch. I think I've mentioned it before, but the wardroom puts on a nice spread on Sundays from 10 till about 2. It works out perfectly to roll out of church and walk down to the brunch together (which really makes it feel like a Baptist church--you have to have food to really worship!). :)

Tonight I had the privilege of flying with one of our young pilots for his first night flight on the boat. He had not flown on Night Vision Goggles at HS-8 since checking in in October, nor had he flown a night approach to the ship, which isn't necessarily hard, but it's not easy the first time, either. It was a good learning experience for him. It brought back vivid memories from my first night flight off the boat. I had many of the same struggles--visualizing where the helicopter is versus where it should be, with so few visual inputs--it's REALLY dark out there, even with the NVG's on. He got through it with a few pointers here and there, and we had a thorough debrief after the flight to fill in the holes--perhaps a few things we should have talked about a little more BEFORE the flight. Now, it's time for 'rats. I think I hear some cookies calling my name from Wardroom 1 (over 120 frames away).