The year (as I remember) was 1995. I was stationed in Korea and was serving as the Brigade Chaplain for the 8th Military Police Brigade. Our Brigade was tasked with all Military Police and Security Police activities for the entire Korean peninsula. Headquartered in Seoul at the US Military compound in Yongsan, we were "very close to the flagpole" meaning that our proximity to the US Forces, Korea, the 8th Army, and the Combined Forces Command consolidated headquarters were all located close by. The General, who wore the Commander's hat for all of those commands was General Gary Luck. My Brigade Commander, Colonel Robert Neubert and his wife were good friends and golfing buddies with General and Mrs. Luck. As such our unit enjoyed a good relationship with that higher headquarters.
Because of that relationship, when it came time for our annual Dining Out event, a very formal affair, the General was invited to attend. This was protocol for most events like this. He was, of course, joined by his wife and also by his Command Sergeant Major. In addition, it was attended by many senior and junior officers and non-comissioned officers from the Yongsan area.
Because I was on the staff, I never got a formal invitation. I was expected to be there because I was going to deliver the invocation for the event. As such my wife and I would sit at the head table with all the other dignitaries.
On the afternoon of the event I was still not sure of the start time so I asked the S-3 Operations officer, a major, what time it started. Now you have to understand that all of these events begin with a social period that lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. So when he told me that it started at 7:00 pm I knew that I could arrive around 7:15 to 7:20 and still be early enough to make the dinner. I made plans to arrive "fashionably late."
My wife was stunning and I was quite good looking in my Dress Blues formal uniform. The event was held at the Dragon Hill Lodge, an Morale, Welfare, and Recreation hotel right there on the base. Arriving at 7:15, we took the elevator up to the 2nd floor area where the dinner was being held and stepped off the elevator. When we did, we came face to face with a very agitated Brigade Commander. He snapped at me, "Where have you been?"
"Sir?"
"Where have you been? The dinner was supposed to start at 7:00 pm. It is now 7:20 and the head table has been waiting on you to arrive!" Standing there with him was his wife, the Deputy Brigade Commander and his wife, the Command Sergeant Major, and the FOUR-STAR GENERAL and his wife.
I blurted out that I thought the SOCIAL HOUR started at 7:00 but no one heard me. General Luck walked over to me, took his fist and hit me hard in the chest and said, "Son, don't you EVER make me wait like again!" Then he said something about a "dollar waiting on a dime" but then he hugged me.
Now the fist to the chest I expected. I deserved that. But the hug?
Later I was told that the musical ensemble had begun the music and everyone had risen to their feet 20 minutes before I arrived. I didn't just make the General wait, I made everyone wait. When the head table (including me) walked into the room, I saw that it was filled with several hundred people all standing at attention. Needless to say, I did not enjoy the rest of the evening.
But he hugged me. Now why would he do that? Well I can tell you why. Because that was the kind of person he was. He was not one of these Generals who is so high and mighty that he has lost touch with the average soldier. No, he was a soldiers General. I heard story after story of this man refusing to let anyone open the car door for him or carry his bags. I remember a soldier telling me that General Luck stopped his armor-plated staff car to offer the young GI a ride on a hot day.
I keep going back to that hug. So undeserved, yet so welcomed, especially under the circumstances. That is how I feel about God's love for me. It is so undeserved, yet so welcomed.
The Bible says in Romans 5:6-8 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So the next time you get something good that you didn't expect or deserve, just remember that your relationship with God came just the same way.
As I prepared to leave Korea for reassignment back in the United States, it was General Luck, the soldier's General who awarded me the Meritorious Service Medal.
And it was General Luck, now retired, whom I found myself sitting next to at a school event for my daughter. He really hadn't changed that much -- still the ruddy complexion and short gray hair. And the same smile that I remembered that day when he punched me and then hugged me. I am not even sure he would remember this event if I shared it with him. It probably stands as a vivid memory in my mind alone; one that I will never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment