EP 30: When the World is in a State of Chaos: Wars and Rumors of Wars

Alarms are blaring, headlines won’t quit, and everyone has a take—so where do you put your heart when wars and rumors of wars won’t let up? We open Scripture and our lived experience as Marine veterans and spouses to map a calmer, truer way forward. Instead of doomscrolling and division, we talk about the posture Jesus calls for—do not be alarmed—and how that shifts everything from our thought life to our daily work.

We unpack the steadying image from Hebrews 1: Christ seated at the right hand, ruling and not rushing, and why fixing our minds there disrupts anxiety’s grip. From Isaiah 26, we get practical about attention as discipleship: screens shape us, so we choose Scripture before scroll, prayer before posts, and wise community over algorithmic outrage. Trust, we’ve learned, grows through tested promises kept. We share how to build it: small steps of obedience, journaling answered prayers, and returning to “memorial stones” when fear surges again.

Readiness matters, but not the kind that fuels endless speculation. We focus on spiritual readiness—doing the job God has actually given you, staying in your lane, and refusing to waste energy on what you cannot control. Crisis can become a gospel doorway when Christians embody calm courage. We talk candidly about mortality, the fears spouses carry before and during deployments, and the hard question that refines faith: is God still good if the worst happens? The answer leads us back to the Prince of Peace and a double posture—prepare for hardship, pray for peace.

If the noise is high and your heart is tired, join us. Share this with someone who’s spiraling, subscribe for more grounded conversations, and leave a review to help others find a steadier path.

SHOW NOTES: 

EMAIL US-   hello@militarywellnesscollective.com 

Bible Passages Shared This Week- Mark 13:7, Hebrews 1:1-4, Isaiah 26:3, Proverbs 4:23, Proverbs 3:5-6, 

BOOKS:

Discipleship on the Edge: Discipleship On The Edge: An Expository Journey Through The Book Of Revelation: Johnson, Darrell W.: 9781573832120: Amazon.com: Books

Transcript

Setting The Stage And Disclaimer

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And welcome back, everybody. My name's Joshua, and I'm joined with my wonderful wife, Brittany, here. And she just decides to be. Yeah, I'm just gonna ignore you. And I'm just here. I can confirm that she's right here. Brian and Kelly are best good friends, are also with us, and we're here talking about some more fun stuff being in the military, being Christian, and how all that um comes together. Brittany was deep in thought. She was that's what was happening. She was.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

I was thinking about resources.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Yeah. Yeah. Resources.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

That's important.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

The Bible. Did you write that one down? Yes, yes. There you go. That's a given. So today we're going to be talking about a pretty loaded topic. When the world is in a questionable state, i.e., wars and rumors of wars. And before we get into this, I really just want to give like a preface, a warning, a caveat, if you will. We don't record these in like reaction to or like in line with, nor do they publish on time from when we record them.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

So we're not recording on Monday, March 6th, right now, is what you're saying. Correct. So when these 2 30 in the morning or whatever time at publish, yeah.

Why We Focus On Timeless Truths

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So like if some huge world event happens, we didn't tell the future. Right. And we also did not react to that event most times. So it's it's pretty random too. And if you're trying to figure out like when we've recorded these things, it would be pretty hard to do because sometimes we're a little bit ahead, a little bit behind, like we got all sorts of different schedules going. I just want you guys to be aware of that because this world events typically are the pillars that are in our minds. I mean, even when you think of world history, it's like, oh, when this war started was this date. When this war ended was this date, this is what was going on. And those are kind of like the the points in time in our history books that we we follow.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Like a timeline.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

And so so don't try to line this up with that. What we're our goal is is to really give some evergreen, concrete, overarching truths that you can take with you no matter what war we're in, or what time frame we're in, or what season of life we're in as we go through these things.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Timeless truths. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, we started recording this, started doing this podcast in August of 2025. And a lot has happened on the world stage in that time. And it's been tempting to start to respond and react to what's happening in world events, but instead we've made a commitment to no, we're going to focus on timeless truths. What does God's word says say? We would love for you to be able to, you know, listen if you have a similar response and reaction to what's going on, you know, six months from now or five years from now to listen, like this could be a our goal is that this would still be a helpful episode. Yeah. Ladies, have anything to add on that?

SPEAKER_04 3:34

No.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Nope we're good. Kelly loves watching the news like all day long. I'm like, babe, stop watching the news. No, she doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

I don't. I'm the same. I just don't. I know that sounds crazy, but after y'all were in Iraq, I just I know I chose that the world was crazy and burning down, and I was just gonna turn my eyes to Jesus and trust, like, come Lord Jesus, come, we know you're coming. Like that might sound ignorant. I do, I am aware of some things, thanks to Instagram or you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I usually have to tell you when a hurricane is coming.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

This is true. This is very true.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

There's no milk on the show uh at the store. Oh, a hurricane must be coming. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

I'm usually hearing someone talk about it.

Do Not Be Alarmed: Mark 13

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Yeah. And I'm like, oh, I think we just learned to live by the truth of God's word.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

But for the past twenty-five years that we've been involved in the military and be and being adults, there have been wars and rumors of wars. Our entire our entire adult life. There have been wars and rumors of wars. And Joshua and I, as veteran Marines, we went to combat, we went to war, we were part of those wars. We joined, I joined in response to 9-11, 2001.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

You did too.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

You did as well, right? Kind of, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Kind of a big event. You said it's a good one. Well, it it was, but I was also in the process when that was happening. Okay. And so I was kind of already in that mode.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

And then I was not. I that happened, and I'm like, I gotta get to a recruiter's office. And I had to elbow some 85-year-olds out of the way who are trying to join the military. Anyway, and these ladies are these ladies have been with us along the way. So wars and rumors of wars.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

So one first passage, we we're using that language intentionally. And Jesus uses that terminology in Mark chapter 13. And the way the ESV words it, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, we get a very quick instruction. Do not be alarmed. Do not be alarmed. And so if I could just initial thing is to take Jesus' words to heart when you, it doesn't say if you, it doesn't say, hey, in the off chance that this might possibly maybe happen. Like, no, no, no, when this happens, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. I would re-word that. Just if the Brian standard version would say, Don't freak out. Don't freak out. There's a whole lot of people freaking out at all times, in all places. Don't freak out. It's not helpful for you. It's not helpful for people around you. Don't freak out.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You know, it's amazing how scripture and and Jesus gets right to the heart of the issue and knows exactly what our initial reaction is going to be, and then tells us to do the opposite. I'm thinking of Ephesians, like, oh, hey, your natural like your natural stance is not to, as a man, be loving. So what does the Bible tell you to do? Love your wife. Right. What is what is the natural thing for for the ladies not to do with their husbands is to respect their their husbands. Well, what are they told to do? They're told to respect their husbands. And here we get this passage, it's like, hey, this is going to happen. There will be wars and rumors of wars. Your natural reaction is going to be to freak out. Don't do that.

Perfect Peace And Guarding The Mind

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Something I think too, just to note, like, if you do freak out, you're more likely to be divided or in a disagreement with other people because ever because you're freaking out and not thinking from a grounded place, a steadfast place. And I think we see that a lot in our social media feeds and in other places. People start freaking out. And what it does is it turns them against whoever they think they should be, against whoever's fault it is. I don't that thought just came to my mind. Like the fruit of the flesh is division in Galatians 5. And freaking out causes us to divide.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Anywhere that an algorithm is curating what you're watching or reading next, then it is its goal is to keep you watching or reading. Like that's how they craft the algorithms. And they've figured out the thing that keeps you watching and reading is anger responses. And so yeah, we don't want to do that. Instead, we want to look to Jesus. Like that was what you opened with, Brittany was I just figured out the world's on fire and I'm just gonna look to Jesus. I also do similarly. Hebrews chapter one. This passage is on my mind so regularly in in these times, but really for our entire adult life. And it gives us this picture of Jesus, and it talks about Hebrews chapter one. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things. It goes on to say after making purification for sins, he, Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And so Jesus sat down. And so I think when I'm running around trying to freak out, when other people are running around trying to freak out, when I look to Jesus, most of the times in the scripture, New Testament, like when we're when Jesus is described at the right hand of God the Father, almost all of the time he's described as seated at the right hand, not running around freaking out. There's one time I think he's standing, but Jesus is seated on the throne, he's ruling, he's reigning, he's not freaking out.

How Trust In God Is Built

SPEAKER_04 10:08

And that imagery is rest. Like, am I rest for me anyway? Like to sit down is rest. I have a hard time sitting down. Like I just want to go, go, go, go, go. And I think of if if we would just sit down and take a minute and realize, like, there's nothing new under the sun. Jesus said this is gonna happen. You look at the old testament, my friends. There are wars all throughout it. We can trust God. We can trust that his plans are not to crush us, they're to teach us something, to point us back to him. If we would just stop and think for a minute, I think it would help us not freak out, right? But our tendency is to stop thinking and we just go with whatever's in front of us and we lose our ever-loving minds. And then we let other people who are doing the same thing talk into us and then it creates anxiety and all these things, which is why honestly, when Iraq and all that was happening and we were getting live footage and things, I just I had to stop watching it and trust like my husband belongs to the Lord, his days are already numbered, and me worrying about it is not going to help. I need to trust God. It doesn't mean I never was fearful, that's not what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

But when I watch the news, I was a lot more fearful. It makes me think of a scripture, Isaiah 26, 3. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. So where our mind is, you know, like what we're thinking about, what we're watching, who we're talking to is very important. It's good. I mean, yeah, you keep him in perfect peace. That's what we want when we're freaking out. Or I think there's a level too of like maybe not freak out, but just like unsettling. I feel like I felt that more often than freaking out was just an unsettling feeling.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Like can I pull that back to possibly our a good amount of our audience right now? You mentioned trust a lot, Brittany, and Kelly in that passage, you just trust is trusting.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Exactly. How do we build trust in the Lord? Because much of our audience, much of the people listening right now are young, young military families that may be going through some of these things for the first time. And there's a couple different avenues for that. And as as far as trust, who are people that you trust in your life and and for what? It's usually you've build that trust over time. If somebody you have met does says they're gonna do something and then they do it, and then they say they're gonna do something, and then they do it. You've then seen a pattern happen over and over and over again, right, to where you build trust in that person.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

And you see their character. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I think it's the same way with the Lord.

Scripture, Memorial Stones, And Journaling

SPEAKER_02 13:09

There's a there's an old song, 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Yeah. It's a good old song. Just to take him at his word. That's good. Man, somebody help me out. But anyway, at the end of that, at the end of that second, at the end of that, it says, How I've proved him over and over, or and or how I've proved him. And I'm like, proved him? What are you talking about? Like God is eternal. God doesn't need to be proved. But the what the song is trying to communicate is I have taken him at his word and he's met me there. And then I did it again, and I took him at his word and he met me there. And then I did it again, I took him at his word, and he met me there. And so that's what faith is, and that's how trust is built, is that I take God at his word and I take a little step of faith and he meets me there. And I'm like, wow, God, God's true and he's right. And so that's how trust is built. That we take that little step of faith and he meets us there. And we just keep doing that over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yeah, and I would just add to that of if you haven't done that before, or have like one of those points in your life where that's happened, and you haven't built that personal relationship trust in God yet, read the Bible. Because there's a whole bunch of different instances that explain God's character and show He is trustworthy time and time and time again in other people's lives. Then you can then take that as proof for your trust in him as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Yeah, it's a test of our faith. We've talked about that in in our previous episodes on suffering. Trials and suffering are a test of our faith. And so do that, like take that step of faith. If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, these wars and rumors of wars are inviting you to take God at His Word. If you're a young Christian, like this is how God intends to grow you, is in these trials, in these wars, rumors of wars, all the circumstances that surround them, is to take steps of faith, take the next step of faith to trust in God.

People Fail; God Never Does

SPEAKER_04 15:25

And you cannot do that apart from the word of God. Like to trust him, you have to know him. And we get to know the Lord by reading his word. And I just think of like Moses and the memorial stones. Like they were set up to remember God's faithfulness to the Israelites. And then they were to teach their children about God's faithfulness. If you go back and listen to a previous episode we did on journaling and listening to God, like those are your memorial stones. If if maybe you've been a Christian for a little while and you've journaled answered prayers or things, when you hear these wars and rumors of wars, go back and see God's faithfulness in your own life. I mean, even if you're a brand new believer, just reflect on your salvation, like God's faithfulness to you, just even in that, like it's huge. I often think when we talk about how do we trust God is Proverbs 423, where it talks about keeping our heart with all vigilance, for out of it is the wellspring of life. We trust God when we know Him and we keep our heart in His word and listen to Him through it. And I often say this when I'm telling women about trust like, would you trust your husband if you only talked to him every four months? Now I know in military life, but now you have way more communication than we had. But like if your husband was at home every day and you never talked to him or never asked him questions or never sat with him and heard him speak to you, would we think you had a good marriage? I'm just no, I would not think you had a great marriage. There's a problem. So I don't know why we treat our relationship with the Lord like we're just gonna know him magically, right? It's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Yeah. And if there's maybe you're listening to this and you're like, I yeah, I think I'm trusting God. I think, you know, I'm not freaking out right now, but you have a friend that you're like, man, I wish they would not be freaking out right now. Like, share this episode with them and say, hey, I just want to encourage you. Maybe I've been trying to encourage you, but maybe, maybe these strangers will help you. It's good now.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

I was just I had this mental image when we were talking about trust here of trustfalls. And then I started thinking of like people aren't doing that anymore. So there's all sorts of like there's even camps you can go to and like retreats that like businesses will pay for so that you can like grow in trust with their fellow employees or whatever. And a trustfall is when you get up on a platform and your your friends or family or your acquaintances or whoever are behind you, and you're you're standing backwards and you just fall backwards with your eyes closed and your arms crossed, and just you're trusting they're gonna catch you. And the reason I was laughing is because there's a whole series of YouTube videos of trustful fails. No, because some people are gonna get some because people like they weren't paying attention or they looked or looked back, or like a bee came by and the guy moved and the person falls. Like, there's all sorts of different reasons and ways. But the reason I bring that up is when we put our trust in people, most of the times it you know, it works out in our good relationship after you've established it, but there's still fallibility there. Right. There's still sometimes it doesn't work out well.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

So they might let you fall.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Sometimes, but God never does. That's right. He is always, always there. He never lets anything distract him, he never makes a mistake. He is perfect in all ways.

Be Ready: Spiritual Readiness Over Speculation

SPEAKER_02 19:06

So I want to pull on the thread of distraction that you just said, Joshua. So there there's probably there's this moment where we're like, yeah, but what do I do? Right? So what do I do? Because another thing that happens when when Jesus is talking about the end times, which is what he's doing when he talks about wars and rumors of wars, we need to be ready. And he tells us to be ready. And and that's just kind of throughout the all all the teachings on the end times are be ready. None of the teachings on the end times are get into endless debates about the timing of the end times. It's be ready. And so, you know, we talk about readiness a lot in the military, and there's a lot of different types of readiness. There's physical readiness and there's family readiness, but now we're thankful that there is spiritual readiness being talked about more and more in our military, and that's that's really what we want to focus on is spiritual readiness. In your job, I would encourage you to focus on your job. And so whether you're in the military or you're on the home front, like what is my job? And so I think sometimes that can be a good like kind of reset. Is my job to like, are you the national security advisor to the president right now? If the answer is no, which I doubt he's listening to us right now, if the answer is no, okay, I don't need to have endless opinions about this, but me running down this path is actually gonna rob me of doing my actual job. Like, what is my job in this season before God? I need to do that because you guys that are in the military, like your job is important. It may feel like a really small, small, small piece of the puzzle.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

But we we who now sleep under the blanket of freedom that you provide, we depend on you to do your job. Right. And so do your job, focus on that. And don't allow all these distractions to rob you from doing your job, but also to rob you from that job that God has given you, right? To focus on how can I minister to this person to my left and right? How is God growing me and shaping me through this experience? How is God inviting me into a closer relationship with Himself? How is God seeking to use me to share the good news and to point other people to God in this moment? And so, like, what is God doing in all of this so that I'm not distracted and all these other things?

Stay In Your Lane And Do Your Job

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, that's so good because there's so many times myself and I've witnessed people get caught up in what they cannot affect. Right. And they get caught up in like thinking through oh, the president should have done this, the security advisor should have said that, my CEO should have said this, that, or the other thing. It's like, hold up, dude. That's not your role. Right. And you're spending a whole lot of time, energy, and effort focused on things. Things that you can't control. And all of us back on the home front, whether you're in the military or not, like you can't control those world events. But what you can affect is what is in your bubble, what's in your sphere of influence. What is God doing with you in your space? And don't rob yourself of that by putting your mind somewhere else.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Yeah. Yeah. It's like stay in your lane. Yeah. Like faithfulness and obedience.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Faithfulness.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Faithfulness, obedience.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Like there were people, lots of people, lots of moms, maybe grandmas, maybe grandfathers, who during World War II, their job was to change diapers in Jesus' name on the home front. Just like change diapers, just bring up children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord while dad is, you know, stopping the spread of Nazism across Europe. Yeah. Right? And so for some of you, that's your job. There's other people, like sometimes you hear stories of veterans who they're like, Yeah, I served during this like massive war. And you're like, Cool, what'd you do? And they like some obscure weird thing, and you're like, Oh, wow. And and it's kind of a letdown, but it's like, man, praise God. We needed people doing that, most likely. There's some weird stuff that you're like, that's weird. But like you're part of the thing. You raised your right hand to join. So go do the thing that we're that you're being asked to do and and do it really well. And do it for the Lord, not for the praise, not for the glory that might come to yourself. Do it for the Lord.

Using Crisis As A Gospel Opportunity

SPEAKER_04 23:56

I would also say, like, when you're talking about doing your job, and Joshua, you're talking about like, don't miss the opportunity, basically, right in front of you. The wars and rumors of wars, when chaos is happening, it opens a door for the gospel to spread. That's why we see persecution spreads the gospel so effectively. I hate to use that word, but it's true. Like that's how we came to know the Lord was during a wartime Joshua was gonna go to Iraq, and it really caused us to ask some hard questions. Like, okay, what's gonna happen when we die? Like use these spaces. Like, as Christians, if we're running around freaking out with the rest of the world, you're actually missing a key pivotal opportunity God is giving you to open the word of God and have really good conversations with people that may have not wanted to listen before. So this is not to be wasted. I just want to encourage us there. Yes, it's scary, especially as a wife. Like it can be scary to see these things and you're looking at your husband and you're like, I don't want him to go to war. I don't want these things to happen. But those are all what ifs unless he's actually leaving at that moment. So don't get caught in that cycle. Like focus on the opportunity that maybe God is presenting you with family, close friends, neighbors. I just want to say the gospel advances when things seem horrific. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Yeah, God is ordaining these things. Yeah. There's there's not a question in my mind that God is in control of what's happening. And it and one of the purposes for that may be exactly what you just said to glorify his name and to reach those people that would have otherwise just been blinded to what God is doing.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

In you and through you to other people. So yeah, if you're fearing, I'm yeah, there's wars and rumors of wars, and I just signed up to join the military to get college paid for, and now they're telling me to go somewhere else, or I just signed up for the military to look cool and uniform, and now I'm getting ready to go in into harm's way. Let that have its effects. I I don't want to say, hey, you're not gonna die. I I I don't know that. You may die young. You may die as a teenager, you may die in your 20s, you may die in a combat zone, you may die in a car on the way to work tomorrow, you may like you might die young. And you need to wrestle with that. And you need to let that fear have its effect and draw you to God.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Yes.

Facing Mortality And Finding Peace

SPEAKER_02 26:45

And there is only eternal life found in Jesus Christ and in faith in Jesus Christ. And so let those things have their effect. Similarly, on the front home front, you fear, like Kelly has said multiple times, my one of my big fears was that you would die like before we had kids. You would die before we hit our first year of marriage. You would die before we hit our fifth year of marriage, whatever the case was. And let that have its effect.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

And yeah, and press into the Lord. Like that is what I can look back and so many times just see the Lord in a such a real way, give me a peace when I was unsettled or fearful or panicked or whatever. And he is trustworthy. You know, we can have confidence when we approach him because he is trustworthy and he does meet us there in a real way. So I would just encourage you to press into his word and a relationship with him.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

I had an older just on Kelly's point real quick. I had an older woman say to me one time when I was unsettled and fearful, like we were in real life circumstances where our husbands could die, like at war. And she just said, just take that, play it out, Brittany. If he dies, is God still good? And it was a question that I had to be confronted with and wrestle with because my initial response, if I'm honest, at 19, 20 years old was no, he's not. Right. And she confronted something deep within my heart that needed to be unearthed. Like, my husband is not my God. Jesus Christ is good. Even if he takes my husband, do I trust his plan? And then prayed, you know, like, don't take my husband. But she was very clear, like, hey, if that happens, is God not good? But anyway, Brian, you were gonna say something.

Is God Still Good If Suffering Comes

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Yeah, I was gonna try to tie a bow on the episode with a statement that we affirm in a statement of beliefs, and it talks about the remedy, the solution for war. The true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of his teachings in all the affairs of man and nations, and the practical practical application of his law of love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace. And so one thing that we haven't said is we need to be praying for peace. Yes, you might be preparing for war and you should, but we also need to be praying for peace at the same time. That's good. Amen.

Pray For Peace While Preparing

SPEAKER_01 29:27

So, for a quick recap, we started this with don't freak out, as scripture says. Rolled into trust in God, have faith in him, take this as a true opportunity to glorify his name and pray for peace. Amen. And with that, uh, we're gonna close this episode out with if this has been helpful to you, or if you somebody's name has popped into your mind of, oh man, this is something they need to hear, or some of these other episodes you've heard before, these are things that they need to hear. Please share that episode with them. This is this is good information for people to know that are going through trying times. And we all have those times from time to time, not to say time or more time, but we are out of time. We'll talk to you guys later. I love y'all.