Military Wellness Collective

EP 32: Why Did You Join the Military: Knowing Your WHY Helps You Understand Your Purpose

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Ever feel the ground shift under your feet when the mission blurs and the hard days stack up? We open up about why we joined the military, how those early motives evolved under pressure, and what finally gave us a purpose we could carry through deployments, recruiting quotas, and the long stretches of hurry up and wait. Joshua shares how a life of 50-50 interests found a home in the Marines’ constant change, while Brian recounts the impact of 9/11 and the resolve to serve as both a Marine and a Christian. Together we trace the moments that tested resolve—cold rain, scorching heat, boredom at sea, and the loneliness of recruiting duty—and how naming a clear why outlasted grit alone.

We dig into two questions worth writing down: why did I join, and why does God have me here now? The first might be raw—escape a hometown, pay for college, prove yourself. Let it be honest. The second is living. We talk through how to invite God to reshape motive into mission, and how reframing service as protection, stewardship, and discipleship turns waiting into training and action into care for people. Along the way, we compare enlisted and officer timelines, the shock of early deployments, navigating marriage through distance, and stepping directly from active duty into pastoring military communities where most of our families wear the uniform.

If you’ve wrestled with purpose, you’ll find practical prompts, field-tested perspective, and encouragement to build community on purpose. Train the next person even as you learn. Share your why with your spouse and your unit. See your station—ship, shop, or chapel—as a place to protect the vulnerable and strengthen hearts. Hit play, then tell us your why, subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of military life and wellness, and leave a review to help other service members and families find this show.


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We would love to hear your WHY, if you have processed through the questions Joshua and Brian talked through today, share what was helpful. 

If you have future episode ideas, email us those too!

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Setting The Stage And Focus

SPEAKER_01

Hey, y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Military Wellness Collective. I'm Brittany. I'm going to be your host today. And I am here with my husband Joshua and our friends Brian and Kelly O'Day.

SPEAKER_02

What's up?

Joshua’s Path To The Marines

SPEAKER_01

Hey. And we are really excited to be with you today. We're going to be bringing to you an episode where we're pretty much talking to the guys. This is let's talk to Joshua and Brian about why did y'all join the military? And so I'll be asking some questions. Kelly might pop in here and there to ask. I think this is a really important episode. You both have a lot of experience in the military, ministering to the military. And I think it's a good thing to remember why we do things. So like, why did you join the military?

SPEAKER_05

I I find just that question to be helpful for me. Like, why did I start doing this in the first place? And that can be really helpful for lots of topics. Oh, yeah. Especially when things get difficult and you wake up in the morning, you're like, what am I doing? Why did I why did I sign up to do this? And sometimes that gives me clarity. Like, I need to not sign up for this kind of stuff in the future. But sometimes it's like, oh yeah, you know, I I did I'm doing this for this good reason. So let me endure through the pain.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think this question helps us in a lot of areas. If you know why you're doing things, I mean we've asked this like, why did we church plant? Why did we stay in the military? Why did we, you know, when I was a health coach, what is your why? Like you see this on Instagram posts all the time from influencers. Know your why.

SPEAKER_05

So start with why. And here we are on episode whatever this is. What's your why? Starting with our why.

SPEAKER_01

So Joshua, Joshua. I don't know what I was just trying to say. I was trying to say Josh. I don't know what I was trying to say there. Why did you join the military? Like, what was your like driving force behind that?

SPEAKER_00

I just got lost one day and ended up in a recruiting office. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_01

You definitely weren't praying about it because you didn't know God. So you weren't like, Lord, what should I do? So tell us like your experience with why you decided to join the military.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I grew up in a home that was non-Christian, uh non-practicing Catholic is what I would call it. We were Catholic in name only because all of our extended family was, then we were. That's just the way it went. So, but I was going through life, broken home, and trying to figure out where I was gonna go. And I remember taking one of those like interest exams in high school, which is you you you get asked of like 300 questions, and they seem all all over the place, like weird questions.

SPEAKER_01

Like what would be your perfect career type test?

SPEAKER_00

No, it would not ask you that directly.

SPEAKER_01

No, but that's what it was pointing you to.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was trying to help you find out what you're interested in so that you would go into a field that covers down on that. And so ask you a whole bunch of questions, and it's supposed to give you like a scale, zero to a hundred, of like if you're a hundred in this, then you need to go and do that. And here's the jobs that you would be doing that. And there's like eight different fields, and I remember getting the results. I was kind of excited about it because I was like, I don't know what I want to do.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So when I got the results, though, it was like 50s across the board.

SPEAKER_01

Meaning that's not because you're so steady.

SPEAKER_00

I had no great interest in any one thing. I had no like like thing that was like, nope, don't want to do that, or yep, I want to do that. It was like all just yeah, I could do that. Sounds great. No, and so I was like, man, this didn't help me at all. But I so I got it I I worked through like junior high and high school, and one of the places I worked at was a place called Pizza and Pasta, and it was in a strip mall, and it was in a strip mall that also had all of the military services. And so they would come in and get pizza and hang out with all the high school kids there for obvious reasons. And but since I worked there, I got to like watch that happen quite a bit. And and I got to ask a lot of questions, I got to kind of wade through what that might look like. And I think one of the big things that helped me was realizing that if I joined the military and I start doing a certain job and I'm working outdoors, working with my hands, but then after a period of time, then my job would also shift to more of an office job. It would be working with people, sometimes it wouldn't, sometimes it'd be working with machinery, sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes I'd be blowing stuff up and that'd be cool. Sometimes I wouldn't, and that'd be great too.

SPEAKER_01

You're like 50%.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, wait a minute. So this is like the same quote unquote business, but I can do different things and it's constantly changing. And and I was like, okay, this is actually might actually fit what my interest exam fit. And it all my interest exam also told me that I can pretty much be happy doing whatever.

SPEAKER_02

So you think that Joshua, it's very, it's very true.

SPEAKER_00

And so I was uh I told my guy. Yeah, I'll just go with it. It's fine, no big deal. So I I I I brought my mom into it because I was I was looking at joining at 17. She was like, no. Uh she was very against it, and she just didn't want her baby boy going off and doing the things that I did.

SPEAKER_01

What year was this?

SPEAKER_00

This was in 2001.

SPEAKER_01

So the beginning. So this is before September 11th.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Just history there.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, then that happened. Then I turned 18 and then I was able to actually sign up. Ended up joining the Marine Corps, and the reasons for it being not just like analytically, oh, this will fit all of my interests. There was also this great desire of where I did not want to be. I think I had a fear of where I was actually good in high school, like as as far as like academically was Didn't you get a scholarship? I I was I had a lot of opportunities to go to a lot of different places and and do a lot of different things. But I I I was I was fearful that I knew I would be good in some sort of analytical, mathematical style, accountant-like job. And I could do that and I could be happy in it, but I didn't want to like work in a cubicle for like the rest of my life. And the fear of just doing the same job over and over and over and over again all day long, every day, was actually what I was like, I don't want to be there. So I was looking towards the military to be the antithesis of that, the opposite of that. And so when I joined, we had already gone to like war was already happening and everything, but I had already made that decision prior.

SPEAKER_01

And so And that didn't deter you, you kept going.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah. And that was just that was a natural byproduct of what I saw of a possibility. And then after joining, I was like, yeah, that's a very real possibility. And yeah, that's that's that's the main one of the the main uh roads that I was looking at when I was in those crossroads, and that's that's kind of how my decision making process was going. Now things got complicated there because then you and I started dating, and weird for a little bit designed up, right? But I was already deciding.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it was yeah, that that complicated things, like, oh, so how is this gonna work? You know complicated things. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

She was a complication. Yeah, what are you saying?

Marriage, War, And Meaning

SPEAKER_05

Like absolutely a complicated thing. So even as you were in the process of joining, war basically broke out. So that could have deterred you. And then this you know, this fancy for a young woman uh also was budding and growing, and that could have deterred you as well. But you pressed through those things and joined anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I I think there was this this sense of because I was I wasn't a Christian at the time, but there's also this sense of wanting my life to matter in some big way. And so there's also this like higher purpose that I just felt compelled to to do.

SPEAKER_01

So I love that. And we see like how the Lord used that in our lives because we got married shortly after boot camp.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then he drew us to himself. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00

Looking back on it, like it's amazing how God took me as somebody who was an enemy of him and put me in this position to pull me away from all of these things and then bring me to himself in a miraculous way.

SPEAKER_01

That's really cool. Well, okay, so that's Joshua's story, like why he joined the military. So, Brian, just the same question. I have a couple other questions. Hopefully, we can't get to them for you guys. But why did you join the military? Like, what's your story? How'd that happen? What that looked like for you.

Brian’s Almost-Enlistment And Conversion

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, so I actually I almost joined right out of high school, like Joshua. If I would have joined right out of high school, it would have been for the reasons to prove to myself whether or not I was a man or not. And or maybe a a cousin to that idea is to like be cool. I wasn't very good at much in life pre pre-military until in high school I was part of J R O T C.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

And I was actually good at that. I was good at, you know, I learned to march and be a drill team commander and color guard and even shooting on the rifle team and those types of things. So it was like the first thing I was good at. And so for me, it was like, you know, an opportunity to be good at something. And, you know, guys, you know, upperclassmen would join the military and they would come back and they would be in their uniform and they would talk about all these things. And I just I thought it was cool, and I was like, man, if I could do that, that would that would mean something. And so that's that's why I would have joined right out of high school. But for whatever reason, I didn't. Instead, I went to college and I I had grown up in a Christian home, but I spent the first two years of college running away from all of it. Okay. I followed the world, I left church, I was involved in all kinds of sin. And it was halfway through my time at college that I was saved, and God saved me in a powerful way. And, you know, we we talked about that in a previous episode with our testimonies. But they're very connected for me because I was saved to date myself a little bit. I was saved in June of 2001.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

9/11, Calling, And Mission Field

SPEAKER_05

I had put aside all aspirations to the military. I was a business finance major in college when God saved me. And my thought was that I was gonna go into the business world, and I was either gonna go like down the be a CEO or a CFO or move to New York City and be a stockbroker, whatever, whatever path it was, I was gonna be a millionaire by age 25. Okay, right. Like, I mean, that was just kind of the given. The question was a dreamsy dream there. The question was like, how fast am I gonna get there? Right. Okay. And so, but God saved me. And I, you know, I still loved the idea of business and I loved the idea of finance. But then a few months later, three months later, September 11th, 2001 happened. And the Lord used that in my life in a very powerful way because I just had this like visceral response of like this is not okay. We collectively need to stop this. Like, terrorists flying planes into buildings needs to stop. And I was 20 years old, so I was young, I was relatively healthy, and didn't have a whole lot else going on in life. And so, like, why not me? And so that was honestly, that's that's been a lot of major decisions in my life is seeing this like massive need and the Lord just kind of prompting, Well, why not me? And so I stepped into that. And in hindsight, I also knew kind of simultaneously to I I am joining the Marine Corps to stop terrorists from flying planes into buildings and killing innocent human beings. I'm joining for that reason, but I also knew I was a Christian and that if I was gonna join the military, I also needed to be a Christian Marine who would do all of that in a very moral way and to make disciples of Jesus Christ while I was in the military.

SPEAKER_01

So you're using it like as a mission field.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

That didn't go great my first two to three years in the Marine Corps, but you know, it was it was something that I had to grow into. But as I look back into it, that was there from the very very beginning, my faithfulness to do that. And so that's why I love this question. Because had I really thought through it early on in my military experience, I think it would have kind of accelerated God being able to use me in in that way. Okay. Um even to be better at my job and to uh be better at the job of making disciples of Jesus while I was in the military.

SPEAKER_01

So you're saying you can articulate your why much more clearly now after your military service.

SPEAKER_05

Way better.

SPEAKER_01

Like you probably would not have articulated it that way when you first joined, do you think?

SPEAKER_05

Or would you have so you know the brain of a young man is becoming not as complex, maybe as it should be. But it so it was very like, this looks good, I'm gonna do it. So you're maybe I could have articulated it, but there's been these, there were these times over over the course of serving where it's like, oh yeah, this is why I joined.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

You know what I'm saying? Like it was kind of like this God used an experience, be like, oh yeah, this is why I joined. So when I started taking living as an example of Christ in the military more and more seriously, like, oh yeah, this is why I joined. Oh, oh look, people need Jesus here. Oh yeah, that's why I'm here. That's why God has me here. So it became more clear.

Timelines: Enlisted And Officer Routes

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah. So maybe you would have said it and you would have used certain words, but you wouldn't have actually known what it was gonna look like until you actually did it. Right. And then been like, oh, this is what this looks like. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you joined in 2001. What year did you get out of the Marine Corps?

SPEAKER_05

I got off active duty in 2013.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. And Joshua, so you technically, I guess, so did you go to boot camp and stuff in 2001? Is that when we consider start date? What is consideration of start date?

SPEAKER_05

So for me it was different on the officer side. So I went to officer candidate school the summer of 2002. Okay. Part of the delay, well, no, that that would have been a normal progression. So summer of 2002, and then I commissioned in May of 2003. So I was finishing college while all while those things were happening as well.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then for you, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00

I went to basic training in 2002.

SPEAKER_01

Active duty, not or enlisted side, I should. Yeah. Enlisted officer. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And so yeah, I was hitting the fleet in 2003 and then yeah, retired 2022. So 20 years later.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Okay. So we have established like how long y'all were in. You were in a significant amount of time through wars. Rumors of wars. We did an episode on that. And deployments. Did an episode on that.

Pastoring A Military Community

SPEAKER_05

And now we both pastor, we literally stepped directly from being on active duty to pastoring in a military community. I just did the math recently. Our church is like 75% active duty military families. You're probably even higher than that. Closer higher than that. Yeah. 75-80% active duty military families. So we we pastor and shepherd in this community.

SPEAKER_01

Would you both encourage active military members to consider their why now and earlier than you did?

SPEAKER_05

Oh yeah. Yeah, I'd encourage you. If you can write it down, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Even if it's a draft, like I think this is why I did this.

SPEAKER_01

Why do you think that's important?

Write Your Why And Let God Shape It

SPEAKER_05

I think it'll help drive when things get difficult. And or God may refine it. God may show you why He joined you. Right? Like if God is sovereign over that. So Joshua's like, I'm just I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and God used it to save you. Like, save you, and then now to use you as an instrument in his hands to proclaim the gospel in this community. So God used it in powerful ways, right? So like if you join the military to be cool and to like wear a uniform, write that down and then say, okay, God, why do you have me here? Like I joined for this selfish reason, or I joined to get college paid for, or I joined because I was bored, or I joined to get out of my hometown. That's honestly part of why I went to college away from my hometown. Was I had a great family, but I didn't have a great like high school experience and friends and some of that kind of stuff was just not great. And so I was just like, I need to get away and do something different. And so you may have joined for those kinds of reasons. Like, I just need to get away. And this recruiter guy says he's gonna send me to this other state, that sounds better than here. And so write that down. This is why I joined, and then allow God to shape that, turn that, direct that for his good purposes. So, yes, I would very much do that. And then I would also recommend if you if you did join for good purposes or God shows you his good purposes, that can help endure you through the hard hard times, the difficult times. Yeah, there's a oh.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, you go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

Sorry.

SPEAKER_06

I'll ask one after you're finished. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um don't forget it. So if if you've been in the military, you know there's a lot of complaining that goes on. Um there are people who complain when things are going great. They're people that complain even when things are going not so great.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

Complaining, Purpose, And Perspective

SPEAKER_00

I've I've seen it many times, and many of many of you guys probably have seen it too. A group of guys sitting around and they just have to wait for formation before they can be released for the day or something like that. And all they're doing is hanging out with their friends, talking about whatever they're talking about, doing whatever they're doing. And they're complaining because they have to wait a formation to be released for the day, or they're complaining about just not doing the thing. And usually they're complaining because they want to have purpose in those scenarios, right? And so they feel like this is a waste of time. There's there's a lot of waiting around, there's a lot of like patience being built in people. Hurry up and wait. Wasn't that a thing? Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. So when you're waiting, you're complaining about not doing the thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And then when you're really hurrying up and doing the thing, you're complaining that man, this is a lot of like hardship and difficulty. So when you're back here on the home front and you're doing your normal thing, even if you're on leave, you might be complaining about having to go back and do whatever while you're on leave or whatever the case is. And then when you're deployed, you then complain because like it can be really hard. There can be really difficult like people dying, uh, equipment breaking difficult circumstances, not having food or water or whatever, whatever the situation is, right? And and you can be complaining then for for good reasons, but guess what? Now you're doing the thing that you signed up to do. And so it's our it's in everyone's nature to fall into that complaining state. But when we take that time and look back on, okay, what is God's purpose in this? It really helps us see through the hurrying up and the the thing and then the waiting and go, okay, there's there's actually a bigger reason for this. And you can find that true purpose rather than that worldly purpose. And that's what can break through some of those complaining times to go, okay, finding that true why I'm here and and having that fulfilled in that space.

SPEAKER_06

It's good.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, so maybe like parse separate all this out. Like, question number one why did I join the military? And then can I flesh that out with why does God have me in the military? And so if we can if we can really push towards that second one, that's the more important question that I think time and hindsight have brought us to. That maybe wasn't there right at the beginning. So why, why did God have me in the military? And there's a hundred answers to that question, but there's more and more clarity on the on the backside. And I I would encourage my younger self to seek for that clarity earlier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Kelly, you had a question? I did. So I have a question for both of you. Was there ever a point or points of time during your active duty time that you regretted that decision or wanted to get out before you did? That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

It's like a loaded question. Every time I was cold and wet.

Regret, Discomfort, And Dark Seasons

SPEAKER_06

Oh, why did I do this?

SPEAKER_00

Seriously, like trying to sleep because you're just exhausted. But you really did the big thing. And your sleeping bag is wet and you are cold. It is. Or or or the inverse. Like when everything is dry and you don't have water and it's hot.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Then you're you're really thinking that led you to really have to be here. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You start thinking of like, when can I get out of this thing? Yeah, I hate cold rain. Discomfort. A lot of my time was in uh here in eastern North Carolina, and when it's cold and it's raining, it's just not fun. My first deployment was probably the like clearest, yeah, I'm getting out as soon as possible. Um I and I can't even fully articulate why. I think part of it was the the hardships was a piece of it. I was deployed, I was separated from my wife. We spent our first anniversary away from each other. Yeah, so it was difficult. I was honestly, most of my first deployment, I was bored. There was no purpose in my mind and from my perspective. And I was like, man, I joined to stop terrorists flying planes into buildings and you know killing innocent people. And here I am floating around on a boat. So what what's the point of all this?

SPEAKER_01

So that would be like a dark space.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so I was like So you weren't like in the light thinking this, you're like in the dark, kind of thinking this.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah. I I was just, yeah, who knows? But I was just in this downward spiral, and so it wasn't good. So I was like, Yeah, I'm getting out. Okay. And by God's grace, I couldn't get out in that moment. And so he gave me more time to consider his purposes. And and honestly, like when when you've just done one thing in the military and and you're just focused on and or you're just focused on like the the the like present things, we've gotta get out of that. We gotta get above that and see what God's purposes might be.

SPEAKER_02

That's really good.

SPEAKER_00

So I kind of jokingly said the discomfort thing, but discomfort comes in many different forms. So my first enlistment, it was being in Iraq hot and just gross.

SPEAKER_01

Joshua does not like to be hot. I don't, I don't. Maybe that's where it comes from.

SPEAKER_00

But even or even sitting in Kuwait getting ready to leave, and we don't have a flight home yet, but then being told we actually have a flight to come back already, like it was it was brutal.

SPEAKER_01

You mean like come back back to Iraq? So you're gonna leave, and then you already have your flight date to come back to Iraq. That's what you're saying.

Recruiting Duty And Purpose Fatigue

SPEAKER_00

So we're sitting in a tent in Kuwait, we're waiting on our flight home, but we don't have that scheduled yet because assets are being used elsewhere. So we're just waiting, right? And we got word that we do have our flight scheduled to come back in like eight months, but we don't have our flight to get out of here yet. Like this is ridiculous. But like I found so I found like even after coming out of Iraq and being and drinking hot water in the heat with a whole bunch of gear, coming back home and enjoying a cold glass of water was just it it did everything for me. And I was like, man, I appreciate water more than anyone else on the world right now. That's right, it's cool. I I was like, it was like rejuvenating, right? And then the second deployment, it was like, oh man, I got blown up. I'm living in like mud water because it's raining in the winter time and it's cold and it's just raining mud because there's like a sandstorm and then rain hits it. It's just a horrible place to be. And so, like all sorts of things. We we had a whole bunch of casualties and whatever. And then, I mean, whatever over casualties, but you know what I'm saying? But then it when it really actually hit me of like, man, I don't want to be here anymore, was actually on recruiting duty. Because in all of those times when I was deployed, there was people around, like it was a brotherly connection with others, and there was a purpose that we saw immediately before us, like, okay, there's a mission at hand here. But when I was on recruiting duty, it was just thankless, it was lonely, and you were out to go and you know, recruit people, and every month they were like, Well, recruit more, recruit more, recruit more. And there was just there was no completion to the mission, and there was no, it felt like the purposeless.

SPEAKER_05

There was no go home date, right? It was just you were on the street. That was very probably another struggle in that. I never did recruiting, but just it sounds like it's a real challenge. And you have to talk about it positively kind of all the time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Right. Yeah. So you're wrestling through like, man, that was really hard. That thing I just went through, and I haven't quite fully processed yet, and now I have to talk about it like, hey, this is a great thing, and you should do it too.

SPEAKER_01

When you were recruiting too, like when the numbers push was up and like Iraq wasn't, it wasn't obviously coming to a close, but Afghanistan was coming. And yeah, yeah, all the things.

Growth Through Hard Things

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I think so. In hindsight, as I looked back on military service, the Lord used it like my purpose was was what I knew at the beginning, but I had to like really let the Lord bring that to fruition was stop terrorists from killing innocent people. That's a good purpose, and make disciples of Jesus in the military, that's a good purpose. I wish I would have kept that on the forefront of my mind earlier and more often in my military experience. I agree a hundred percent. Yeah, what you just said did of. And yet he also grew me slash us, like there's obviously pieces of this on the home front as well, and what the Lord does in you guys. But I mean, he showed me the value of running towards hard things. Like most people, most humans, and my flesh runs away from hard things. But seeing the goodness and the value of God in running towards hard things, the Lord grew me in my ability to teach and train people in like complex and difficult topics because that's what we're doing in the military. It gave me a heart and a desire to train the next generation because in the military, you're always training people, like you're like you barely know your job yourself, and they're like, Hey, make sure you train the next guy because you're actually getting ready to go do some other job. And they're like, that's the Christian life is like, hey, I know you barely know how to follow Jesus, but why don't you bring somebody else along and teach them how to follow Jesus? And so that's powerful. And then yeah, just like seeing the transformation in other people, God's just grown all that in me through the military. And I I actually can't imagine my life separate and divorced from military experience in school. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Military Life As Shared Mission

Closing Reflections And Encouragement

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. I love this. I think if we even as spouses, I know we weren't talking to the spouses today, but if we could just remember the military is a mission for all of us, it's a space where we're called to share the gospel. If you're in the military life, this is kingdom advancement. Don't just see it as like I work for the United States government, this is a place where God placed you. Did you want to say something, Kelly? All right, y'all. This concludes another episode of the Military Wellness Collective. If you've been struggling with your why, like why you joined the military, I highly encourage you to take a look at that today. Really sit with it, take some time to answer the questions Brian gave you. And then if you have talked to people who are just really struggling with why they're in the military, what is this? Is there a purpose to it? We encourage you to share this episode with them. Maybe it'll be helpful.

SPEAKER_05

It's also a good deepening the relationship question. Like, hey, why'd you join? Like it's just a good deepening question for the relationship.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And talk about it with your spouse. That will help your wife understand why you joined the military and why you're doing this together. I know that was helpful for me.

SPEAKER_02

Amen.

SPEAKER_01

Anyway, we will see you guys back here again next week. We're super excited. Thanks, guys, for listening.