The world is a funny place.
This morning I am heading back out to a Russian ship that I did some work on yesterday. When I was on board yesterday I caught a glimpse of the crew list and saw that the country of birth for most of the crew was listed as USSR.
My, how times have changed!
I was commissioned as a Naval Officer about 6 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now the Navy brass was a bit more skeptical than the diplomats that things really had changed for the better at the time, I guess, because they didn’t change their training programs right away. When I went through the USSR was still the enemy we were trained to fight.
My job was to find submarines. We trained for Soviet tactics. When I went up to Maine to the Navy’s survival school we trained with a backdrop of having been shot down in a fictitious country behind the Iron Curtain.
And now here I am some 15+ years later working closely with a Russian crew. The same people. But the country has changed and their flag has changed.
That really isn’t all that unique in world history. The Bible is full of changes like that. The Old Testament is filled with story after story of countries changing alliances and going from enemies to friends.
The New Testament has a prime case of that on a personal level. There was this guy named Saul of Tarsus who went around arresting, torturing, and even killing followers of Jesus because he thought they were evil. Amnesty International would have had a field day with this guy.
Anyway he ended up converting to the very faith he so violently attacked. He even went so far as to become its greatest champion. He even wrote about half of the New Testament.
The world is a funny place.
Anyway I’ve got to run out to the ship that would have been an enemy of ours back in the day.
Enjoy!
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It was quite funny to read this posting, as it reminded me how very much and how very quick these changes occured while I did my service in the German army.
Similar, for decades the USSR was portrayed as the enemy, we were trained on distinguishing between the sound of a German G3 rifle and an AK47. We were also made aware of the Russian markings for common biological, chemical and nuclear weaponry, to be able to respond accodingly.
Then the fall of the Berlin wall came into play, and all of a sudden there were exchanges of officers between East and West German military … and within weeks the curriculum for basic training was rewritten to exclude any hints on Russia or Communism being the “enemy” … made for a few interesting weeks!
And indeed, it seems there is a constant flow of changes when it comes to the perceived enemy of the moment. It seems that a lot of people thought, that taking Saddam out of the picture would calm down the Middle Eastern hotzone … well, it does not appear to have worked quite as planned. Although it saddens me to see that Israel has somehow maneuvered itself back into the center of focus … and with that, I am really worried if things continue to deteriorate in that region, as the current conflict, as is, is raising plenty of unwanted attention in the surrounding countries.
And Iraq might not even be involved …
Oliver
Chris –
In the bigger picture (or maybe the smaller one – I’m not sure what the right analogy is) this is an object lesson of our relationship with God.
The Book says we know God loves us because he died for us while we were enemies. But if we choose to serve the Master we don’t become friends, we become brothers and sons!
I really like the story of Saul/Paul. It gives me hope that I can never wander so far afield that I end up off the reservation. The really interesting part, however, is not that Saul was accepted by God. It is that he was, relatively quickly, accepted by the church. I don’t think a modern Madelyn Murray O’Hare or Anton LaVey would fare so well. Then again, maybe they would …
Blessings,
Ken
Ollie, It is amazing how the more things change, the more they remain the same, eh? Thanks for adding your perspective as one who was much closer to the even than I was, being an ocean away and all.
Ken, do you think the “reservation” could be a bit like Earth? You know, round? There was a time when thinking folks knew that anyone who sailed too far over the horizon would fall off the edge of the earth too. I don’t have a clue if the analogy holds up but it is an interesting idea. Hmmmm….