“If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:31.
Does survival training have insights that help Christians thrive in a hostile world? There is a three week school at Camp Mackall, near Ft. Bragg, N. Carolina, for candidates trying to earn the green beret. It is called SERE School, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. The school culminates with a nightmarish field exercise designed to test the candidates’ ability to live under intense physical and mental stress. Candidates are dropped 25 miles from civilization, equipped with only a knife, a compass, a sleeping bag and a canteen. There’s no tent, despite snow in the forecast; no food even though they will be there for days; no flashlight or night vision goggles. Candidates are part of a small band of just six guys, and hostile natives (i.e., other soldiers and law enforcement officers with dogs) are roaming the countryside trying to capture them. If captured, their resistance will be tested by intimidating interrogation.
What does such training teach us about enduring as Christians? Gordon Smith who is a SERE instructor says, “I tell the students, ‘If you have a guy with all the survival training in the world who has a negative attitude, and a guy who doesn’t have a clue but has a positive attitude, I guarantee you that the one with the positive attitude is coming out of the woods alive.”
If we have a positive attitude – and God will give us an attitude appropriate for our situation if we will pray for it - we have a head start when it comes to overcoming temptations, fears, and stress. With a positive attitude we can better deal with anger over our situation, better handle guilt over what could have been but is no more. And the basis for such a positive attitude is summed up in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us.”
It is also easier to develop a positive attitude when we work with God to break our work and thoughts into manageable chunks. The green beret candidates going through SERE training are taught to celebrate the smallest of victories - “I didn’t get sick… I found some water…I caught a fish.” How might we break difficult tasks or circumstances into smaller chunks that can be celebrated? “I didn’t quit today even though I felt like it... I helped someone today… I stood up for my beliefs today.” - DJ
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