Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people persih..."

According to the Thesaurus "vision" can also be represented by the words dream and purpose.  Let me ask you, what is your dream?  What is your purpose?

Some of you will reply that you've acheived it.  Others will say you're still working on it since you haven't retired yet or since your business hasn't quite flourished yet.  Still others would ask me, "Are you nuts?  I'm (so many years old).  It's not time to dream anymore.  It's time for me to be settled and look at retiring."  And to each and everyone of you I would respond, your dream, your purpose has been stolen from you.

Now I don't mean the dream about being a cowboy, a football, basketball or even a baseball pro.  But why can't you coach or be a police officer or a deputy if you are still physically capable?  Age discrimination is out the window.  As a medic in Colorado I manned the El Paso County Sheriff's physical agility test site several times and witnessed several men and women in their 40's and 50's taking that test. 

Why can't we as Nam Vets, or any veteran,  go back to school, at any age, to attain a goal?  I am.  I'm working on a degree in English in order to teach.  School systems are screaming for men and women like us, ex-soldiers, who know how to establish and maintain discipline and train young people.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has on their web-site, countless pages of information as to how 50+ year olds can acheive our dreams by retraining.

The Lord God has called each of us to a purpose.  He has a specific plan for our lives.  This plan is one set in place that only you can fulfill.  You may not be called to be the next Billy Graham, but you just might have experience that can be used on the mission field.  Perhaps you can't preach before thousands, but could you teach six or eight people, say couples, in your living room?  Do you have a love for little kids?  So many churches need parent and/or grandparent type role models to fill children's church teacher vacancies.  People who genuinely love the kids.  Maybe you're a great mechanic.  Can you volunteer to help the elderly in a church or single moms who don't have mechanical ability?  Maybe teach auto mechanics to teens or as an outreach?

You see my veteran family, when we were young we had a vision and we had desire.  But one of the things that going to war does is steal that from us.  Subsequently we came home and one of the first things we heard was, "So when are you going to get a job?"  Especially in the 60's, when no one really cared if an adult male, returning from war wanted to go to school and learn something.  We had been told by "older and wiser vets,"  we were better off going to work and "forgetting about the war."  The funny thing is they didn't practice what they preached.  (According to the National PTSD Center, 37% of WWII vets had and were treated for mental/emotional issues.)  Therefore, between the combat experiences of the Nam and the pressures of returning to a "normal life in the World,"  we lost our dreams; our purpose.

I had no purpose.  Today however, the Lord has restored my life's vision.  I am not wasting away.  I asked God in prayer, alone, to show me what my desire was and He took me all the way back to 8 years old when I played at being a priest.  I knew.  God wanted me to minister.  Then God took me to 1987, and Living Waters Christian Church while I was still on active duty, when He called me to preach/teach.  My purpose is to teach my brothers and sisters about the Lord Jesus Christ.  To share with my veteran family how, what, and why, the Lord wants each of us to know we are important to Him and we have purpose in God's Kingdom.

I'm going to invite each of you who read this to contact me so we can talk further about this.  Why?  Because as Scripture says, "My people persih for lack of vision/purpose..."  I want you, my veteran family to realize your purpose in life.  We can, reclaim our lives in spite of Vietnam, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq or whatever war.  We simply need to ask God to guide us.

Call if you will at (319) 364-3396...leave a massage and allow me to call you back if you don't get me.  Or e-mail me at frank@cedarvalleypointman.org

Blessings to all,

Frank