Military Wellness Collective
Military Wellness Collective is made up of four friends — two retired Marines (Joshua and Brian) turned church planters and their wives (Brittany and Kelli)— who have lived life both in uniform and on the home front. Together, we share real stories, hard-earned wisdom, and practical, biblical encouragement to help military members, and their families thrive in every season. Whether you’re navigating deployments, adjusting to life in a new town, or simply seeking hope in the middle of your military journey, our mission is to equip you with truth from God’s Word and tools for a healthy, resilient life.
Military Wellness Collective
EP 54: Life After the Uniform: With Special Guest John Rudd
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The day you take off the uniform can feel like winning your freedom and losing your map at the same time. We sit down with John Rudd, a newly retired Marine, to get honest about what the first few months after military retirement actually feel like, not the highlight reel. Yes, there’s joy: family travel, fresh air, and finally doing normal things without asking permission. But there’s also a quiet whiplash when the structure that shaped your whole adult life suddenly disappears.
We dig into the hard emotional layer that rarely gets said out loud: the shift from being needed every day to feeling like an echo. John shares how mastering a technical craft, mentoring younger Marines, and carrying responsibility created real purpose, and how that purpose can vanish overnight in civilian life. We talk about identity after the military, the “need behind the need” that drives people to join, and how the military’s binary mindset can condition us to see ourselves as useful or irrelevant.
Because we’re a faith-forward show, we also wrestle with what a Christian does with that discomfort. We connect purpose, stewardship, and sanctification, and we name the stakes for veteran mental health when meaning collapses. Brittany adds the spouse perspective and why families should start processing identity and purpose long before separation day.
If you or someone you love is transitioning out of the military, share this conversation, subscribe for more practical veteran wellness and spiritual health conversations, and leave a review so more service members and families can find it.
Do you have something you would like us to tackle on the show? send us an email hello@militarywellnesscollective.com
SHOW NOTES:
1. Amazon.com : lost in the middle paul tripp
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Welcome And Why This Topic
SPEAKER_00Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Military Wellness Collective. I'm Brittany. I'm going to be one of your hosts today. And we're super excited. We have another special guest episode coming up for you guys. And so we have John Rudd in studio with us today.
SPEAKER_06Hey y'all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're so excited for him to be here. And then Brian O'Day and Joshua Brown. And Kelly's back, but she's just hanging with us. Yeah, she's here. We had to say it, even though she didn't want us to. We love you, Kelly. We're so glad she's back.
SPEAKER_04So a an avid listener asked me, like, dude, when's Kelly coming back? Next episode. Next episode.
SPEAKER_00So stay tuned. But we're really excited. Today's topic is looking at what it looks like to transition out of the military uniform and possibly into past pastorate, but not specifically into the pastorate. Just what does it look like?
SPEAKER_02We just all happen to be happened to be shared life experience. Yes.
SPEAKER_00So Joshua retired a few years ago, and then Brian followed shortly after, but then John Redd retired most recently. And so we wanted to have him on and talk about what that transition looks like from, you know, a few-month perspective. And then I'm sure the other guys are going to chime in with some of their perspective and as they ask questions for him. But as we kick this off, we want to thank you guys for tuning in again. And we're just going to ask John if he would tell us a little bit about himself. So you guys know who is talking with us today.
Meet A Newly Retired Marine
SPEAKER_02All right. So obviously I'm a Christian, I'm a pastor with uh with these fellows. I'm a husband, I'm a I'm a father, and I'm a recently uh recently retired Marine. Uh April 1st was my first day, like officially off of the rolls. Wow. So that's like fresh. I was counting this. I think it's like four months ago. Am I messing up public math? No.
SPEAKER_00Like a baby retired.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, brand new. So new, so fresh.
SPEAKER_04Maybe five. The beard's looking good though. Thank you. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02I appreciate that. I've been working on it from a while.
SPEAKER_04Salt and pepper going on. Yeah. Must get how old are you? I am 45 years old.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04Old enough for the city.
SPEAKER_00How long were you in? How long were you in the Marine Corps?
SPEAKER_02About 23 years. I did uh a couple of years reserves and then been active duty for like 21 and a half or something. Okay. Time gets really weird when you start compressing reserve time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I always I always want to say I know 45 sounds old for you guys that are like active duty and maybe you're in your 20s. That sounds old, but it's not old. Like you're a young guy, you got lots of life ahead of you. So sometimes we use that word retirement, which we've already used a few times. And it's like it's a transition. It's you're not like 65 on a porch somewhere, not doing anything, though I know lots of very, very active, energetic 65-year-olds as well. But it's this is a little different, right? It's a retirement, but it's a midlife retirement. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Midlife, I like that you said that. I feel like from my perspective, watching Marines get in and out, you could hit a midlife crisis real quick here. So hopefully we're gonna hit on that a little bit about emotions and feelings and identity and all the things.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, typically midlife crises happen somewhere around 40th birthday. And so it's just interesting that to retire from the military is often between ages of like 38 to 45. You might be on the later end of the spectrum for doing a 20-something
Unexpected Freedom And Lost Structure
SPEAKER_04year career. So it's good. What have been some of the joys and good things of this transition? Like, what are some things you've just been like, man, this is great. Like you get to grow a beard. That might be one.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah. So first growing a beard is phenomenal. Not, you know, wearing whatever I want every day is pretty cool. You know, I mean the simple stuff, probably the things that uh for most Marines, there's some uh some marine ism. So not having some of those, like those demands has been great. Uh the first few months, the first couple of months out of uniform, uh, my family and I did a lot of traveling. That was actually sort of the first, also part of the first time that we realized, like, man, this might be a little bit different than we had anticipated. And we could probably dig into that in a second. But really getting getting to refresh with my family has been the the greatest joy. Uh traveling, climbing mountains, camping at pretty campsites, fishing beautiful streams, like time with my family, sort of re-reconnecting and kind of consolidating our thoughts about what so what does this all mean? You know, uh what is the what's the future look like for us? It's been been the best.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Can you circle back to that expectation really quick? You mentioned that once you were traveling, it might look a little different this post-military life than you expected.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. So first, uh my my wife's name is Tammy. Our first vacation, our first kind of like leaving the area, as we were, as we were planning the trip, that's sort of when we when we started to discover some of the things that I think the Marine Corps provided to us that was like really, really constructive structure. And so the way it kind of looked was we were we were planning the trip, we we knew where we wanted to go, and we're like, okay, so what day are we gonna leave on? Well, it doesn't matter. Well, what what what day are we gonna come back? Never it doesn't matter whenever. I mean we we have a cat, so like she probably has like an expiration time before like somebody's gonna need to come and take care of her, you know? But like like we in in in the Marine Corps, and and everybody around the table right now has had some some exposure to this. There's yeah, there's leave blocks and there's like long weekends, 96s that you might build, that you might build a trip around. Like, hey, I want to go on this family vacation. Yeah, there is this gap in my work schedule that is ideal for us to go. So that means we have five days.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you maximize it, optimize it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and you had to ask for permission to leave on this date and then come back on this date.
SPEAKER_02The first time I was leaving the state and not gaining like concurrence from another human being, I actually I actually texted one of my former OICs just to tell him, hey man, he's a good personal friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01Uh hey man, I am leaving town and nobody said it was okay. I'm going to my nephew's my my my nephew's wedding, and nobody knows. Now you know. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That is the definition of institutionalization. Uh hard facts. That is like the the old movie uh uh Shawshank Redemption. At the very end, the the the older gentleman gets out, yeah, and he's like working at a grocery store and he asks permission to use the bathroom, and his boss is like, hey man, you don't have to ask permission to use the bathroom anymore. And he's like, I I did for 40 years, so I don't know. So yeah, I is it okay that I'm leaving the state right now? That is that's great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So what were some of the things that were were difficult for you? I mean, we touched on not having to ask for permission, but it was that's like a freeing thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03What were some things
The Hard Part Of Not Being Needed
SPEAKER_03that you were like, oh man, I don't know if I like this or not?
SPEAKER_02So as the as time went on, you know, and we like all this loss of structure and we can do whatever we want. I I found myself where I think when I was when I was on active duty, I had a pretty, a pretty full life. A lot of people, a lot of people needed me, a lot of responsibilities. I suddenly found myself where where I had once had a really full life, kind of almost like a like an echo. You know, there was a space there, but nothing was filling it. And that was, I think that was sort of the the beginning of probably a mental process, a spiritual process of kind of like wrestling with man, what there was probably something there that I didn't appreciate when I had it. And there's probably some work I need to do to to to get through this, get through this well. And I probably wouldn't say I'm done working it out, but really, really started started the thought process to I think appreciate and unpack and maybe sort of realize there's more planning to do than uh than what I had done. It's not just uh a couple packets of paperwork to get out of the marines. There's probably some more some more work that needs to be done.
SPEAKER_03Can you put a little bit more meat on the bones of people needed me and that that sense of being with another group of people that being needed by a group of like that the institution needing you to be there to do a thing, and now they're just like yeah, we don't need you anymore. Yeah, how how did that can you put a little more meat on that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Tammy and I were out for a walk one morning, we've taken up walking, very, very retired activity. We've we've taken up, we've taken up walking together. It's been incredibly productive for our marriage. That might be another podcast. Talking to your wife is cool. That is great.
SPEAKER_04Walking and walking with your spouse. Great. Sorry, so maybe you said Tammy's your spouse, but just to say that clearly, I did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. In fact, Tammy, I was walking with my wife, my wife, uh on a walk, talking, thinking, no one else was wife. Talking, thinking, sort of wrestling through it. And I, you know, I think I was probably becoming a little, you know, probably experiencing some like some a little depressed, a little like bother certainly bothered. And I was trying to like put edges on the like put edges on the feeling. And and and as I was trying to like make a sentence, I came up with like, I'm not important anymore. And it really wasn't wasn't tied to like what was on my collar, my big pins on my shirt, or any of that stuff. I realized that when I was on active duty, I was in a very, a very technical job when I had ascended to a pretty a pretty senior level in that job. And so like I gained mastery. I was an expert in my craft, and I had a lot of young men working for me that like needed that information. And so I was able to provide value to people every single day. Whether it was like like personal life stuff, figuring out, figuring out their careers, figuring out their home lives, or or working through the very, very technical aspects of our job. I got to help people every single day. And that was very edifying, you know, purpose, per purpose lending to me. And and truly, when I think about identity, it really isn't the the what's written on my shirt or the pen that I wear on my collar as far as the identity, but that that like identity purpose stuff that came with truly being able to help other people every single day was very gratifying to me.
SPEAKER_04And then it was gone. And then it was gone, and there was an echo or just silence in some ways. Yeah.
The Need Behind The Need
SPEAKER_04What what would you say to somebody that, you know, first enlistment, second enlistment? You've got you know, hindsight is 2020. That has been said a million times. So as you now look back on 20 plus years on active duty, what would you say to somebody that is maybe they're not even seeing what you just described, or they're seeing it so much like it is becoming their full identity. Anything you want to say to first, second enlistment guess?
SPEAKER_02That's a great question, Brian. You know, as I started processing through this, trying to put edges on, okay, so what what is going on with me? Like what what is this, what's happening here? I've come up with a couple of you know, I've I've come across recruiters a few times. I was not a recruiter, but a few of my friends were. Joshua, you were a recruiter, right?
SPEAKER_06I was, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they they exposed me this idea that recruiters use, and I I don't remember my recruiter saying it specifically, but this idea of the need behind the need. So as as recruiters are sort of pitching guys into the Marine Corps, they've got like these like these little like cards, and they're like, which of these things do you like the most? You know, and and Joshua, you probably still remember like the the detailed pitch. Do you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So the basic gist of it is like, hey, this guy says he wants to have a steady income. Okay, but why do you have that like compelling need to have a it's the need behind that need. So what caused that essentially? You want to help mom or you've been broke your whole life, or whatever. Yeah. So once you discover that, and then you can hang on to that and say, okay, this is your purpose, and then it helps them drive forward to to to actually join and complete and continue on in the military. So it's just helping people work through their purpose for joining.
SPEAKER_02So the idea is identify this thing that the person needs and then connect how the Marine Corps provides that. My advice to the first termer, the early, early in his career person would be for them to realize that they came to the Marine Corps with a set of needs. And the Marine Corps is probably doing a pretty good job of like providing for those needs, but providing for those needs doesn't necessarily mean the Marine Corps is fixing those needs.
SPEAKER_00Or filling it, maybe too. Would that be the way to put it?
SPEAKER_04The Marine the Marine Corps is providing it in a temporary way. Yes. The way I think about it a lot, I I see this in so many things. The the military is a binary organization, ones and zeros, right? A Marine is trained or untrained, right? Gear is serviceable or unserviceable. You are deployable or non-deployable. It's all like yes and no. There's no, I mean, there's some things that there's a scale, like an aircraft is ready to fly or it's not. A vehicle is ready to drive or it's not. Everything's binary, and we do the same thing with human beings. And so at some point, hopefully in your military service, you become a one. You're good, you're good to go, you've been trained, you're helpful to people every single day, you're helpful to the institution every single day. And then all of a sudden, thank you for your service. You're now a zero. You went from a zero to a one, now you're going from a one to a zero. So it's very binary. So the Marine Corps has been meeting those needs, or the military has been meeting those needs, but in a very temporary way. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is so insightful that you just that is so insightful. So what should I so what should the Christian do in response to that?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's a great diagnostic, right? So if we can identify, if we can find tools that help us to identify the needs that we're that we're toting around. And that like I think there's 12 different need cards or whatever that they use. I think that's right.
SPEAKER_04How many?
SPEAKER_02I think there's 12, I want to see these cards, but that's a whole different conversation.
SPEAKER_04Maybe we can get a recruiter into it.
SPEAKER_03This is great. It's been a long time since 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_02I know a number of 800 Marines, probably, something like that. But I think that any tool that helps us to recognize needs that we have on some personal existential level, any any tool that helps us to identify those produces a like I guess the the out I would assess the outcome from that is a is an insight into something that we would, could, should bring Christ into. If I've identified, I have this need and I am fulfilling that need by any outside thing, I am I am catering to my flesh in some way, shape, or form. And so when I it doesn't it doesn't mean that our needs are are wrong or bad or flawed. Right. It doesn't mean that the the things that we use to satisfy those needs are like intrinsically evil. Right. We could we could come up with a list of stuff like dude, objectively, that's bad for you. You are you're dealing with some mental health stuff and you are drugging or boozing yourself to like to medicate it, right? We could say objectively, like, man, that is not a great approach. I could take virtuous things. The the the Marine Corps is not a is not an inherently evil organization, but if I if I take the marine corps and use it as my like therapeutic mechanism to satisfy my
Purpose Identity And Faith After Service
SPEAKER_02like existential concerns, then I am I am I am bringing a distraction into my life that that that is probably preventing me from actually like coming to Christ with this stuff.
SPEAKER_04Just uh define that word existential, that is why do I exist? Right? That's how you're using that word. Like, why do I exist? I've found it'd be interesting. So I transitioned from active duty 13 years ago, 14 years, yeah, 13 plus years ago. So I feel like I've been processing maybe the longest at the table. And so I'd be interested to hear if you guys have processed through some of these needs. For me, it was I really want my life to matter. And I really want my life to matter before God. So I joined in response to terrorists flying planes into buildings, right? September 11th happened, and I'm like, somebody should do something. I'm one of those somebodies, right? And so as I was transitioning out, thankfully the Lord gave me my next big mission of starting a church and and becoming a pastor and all those types of things. But even though I had the next thing, it was still this massive like shift of like this was your mission, this is your mission, right? And so even though I had my next mission, it was still like this. I I had to like shift that and it hit in like really tangible things, like, hey, what do you do for a living? I'm like, uh, well, I I used to be a Marine, and now I'm gonna shift the whole conversation right now because I'm gonna say I'm a pastor, and so now you you're gonna have all sorts of weird feelings about that. And and so, but so I had to learn how to navigate some of those like in the moment conversations while I'm dealing with this massive like shift that's happening in my in my own life. So I'd be curious, like, have y'all like the need behind the need that caused you to join that you're now like in transition, you're having to process through. Like, what's that been for you guys?
SPEAKER_03Can you ask that question one more time after I point out something? Okay. Because I'm gonna derail us a little bit. So I'm sorry. But it was it was just funny for that. You were you were describing meeting somebody and they ask you what you do. Yeah. And if you say I'm a United States Marine, that has implications. Right. Thank you for your success. Which I had always done. And and like, oh yeah, I train and I have and I've done, I've like blown things up, killed people, all of the things, and people are like, oh great. Yeah. But seconds are they ask, or they ask the question have you ever killed anybody? Did you deploy? Did you yeah, they got so inappropriate. But you say I passed, and all of a sudden people get real weird. Right. Yeah, that's a it's the same for pastors' wives, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just and military wives.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Isn't it just backwards and weird to anybody else?
SPEAKER_04It is it's backwards and weird. But uh every once in a while there's interesting conversations. But yeah, so for me, it was I had a whole lot of clarity for why I joined. And you know, I I walked into a recruiter's office a couple months after September 11th, and recruiters didn't have the cards because everybody was showing up to kill terrorists, like it was pretty cut and dry. I had to elbow, there were like at that season, there were like 80-year-olds trying to join the military. Because they're like, hey, I want to go kill some terrorists, and you're like, hey sir, thank you so much. But you know, we got this. But anyway, so so for me, that's what it was. So what so my question was what are some of those things like this is why I joined the military felt, you know, met that felt need for a season, but in my transition, I've had to go back to like, okay, how's the Lord, how's the Lord ultimately answer that question? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'll go first. So when I joined the Marine Corps, it was in in response to a you know, those those tests you can take in like high school to see what your interests are. And you you answer like a thousand questions and it's like weird off-the-wall questions, and somehow it tells you whether or not you should work in an outdoor job or an indoor job or with math and statistics or something more. Yeah, those kinds of things. And it was like if you hit a hundred in this field, you should go into that, you'd be really fulfilled and satisfied. If you had a zero, don't go into that field. I had fifties across the board. Like it didn't tell me anything. And I was just like, this doesn't make sense. But after talking to some people and figuring some things out and realizing the military, you can do a lot of different things, but stay in the same institution. You know, you work outdoors, but not all the time. You know, as you work up the ranks, maybe you go more in an office and less outdoors. Maybe you do maybe you're working with math and logistics in one day, but then the next day you're doing cooler things. Like it's just it's just a big mix mix. So when I joined, I was running away from being in a cubicle or like wanting to do certain things like a normal job. I wanted my life to matter. I also, September eleventh was in the near past. And so there was there was a whole mixture of things. But when I joined, I didn't have a Christian background, I didn't have a a purpose rooted in Christ. So But in my first enlistment, after marrying Brittany and then getting saved, I I gained my purpose for doing what we do. So the Lord really helped me figure that out while I was in the military. And then when I got close to the getting out of the military, God put people in my life and actually a book called Lost in the Middle by Tripp, I think it was.
SPEAKER_00I'll link in the note.
SPEAKER_03Super helpful. And it basically said, Where does your identity lie? If your identity is in your job and then you lose your job, that's how you fall into an identity crisis. That's how you fall into, you know, your midlife crisis. If your identity is in your children and then your kids all go off to college, you kind of just toil and lose your identity. So your identity has to be in Christ. And then in anything you do, your identity stays stays consistent. So after reading that and thinking through that and figuring through that, I think it really helped me with my transition out of the Marine Corps because my identity stayed the same. Even while I was in the military, it was for Christ, proclaiming the gospel. And then I got out and I was still proclaiming the gospel. And so no matter what I did, I happened to go into the pastorate, but if anyone went off and worked at Amazon, they could still have that same identity, you know. So that's what helped me.
SPEAKER_04Have you gotten there yet, John?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_04Some of it. Give us the fresh version of that.
SPEAKER_02So I I I think I joined the Marines like functionally, I I I did like 12-year-old John's dream job. Shooting guns, jumping out of airplanes, blowing stuff up, going to war, doing like doing the test, proving myself the things that I that I wanted to do. You know, like not a not a like diagnostic test, like very clearly. I mean, I grew up on G.I. Joe. And that was like those, those were my, you know, Indiana Jones, G.I. Joe, like that, that was the that that that sort of formed the hero archetype in my mind. When I joined, I joined the Marines about a year after September 11th, absolutely, you know, influenced by some patriotic fervor. Somebody needed to do something, needed, you know, needed direction and purpose in my life. And so the Marine Corps just sort of hit all of the hardest service. Like even at MEPS, there was like, who's joining the Marines? Ooh, you know, like the entry level, the entry-level like medical screening stuff. Like absolutely the toughest thing, the best reputation, like all of the challenges. And so that that really drew me to the service. I mean, I I dreamed of the job that I retired from as a little boy. Went into the service a believer, or at least a nominal believer. By that I mean I grew up grew up in a Christian home. Like I don't remember a time not knowing about Jesus. Probably actually became a regenerate, regenerate follower of Christ uh in my early 20s. But you know, found my found myself in the Marine Corps satisfying all of the all of the things that my my heart desired. And then as I became more devoted to Christ, found wonderful opportunity to pair that service with my faith. But again, my my opportunities in that regard, in my in my last role, I was the the senior enlisted in the technical field for a pretty large formation of guys. And so they, I mean, they would show up on any given day with all manner, all manner of problems. And we talked a little bit, like I could advise them on their careers, I could talk to them about what was going on in their family. Then I frequently had the opportunity to sort of ask them, do you so now do you want the real answer? Do you want the rest of the answer? I mean, I I I we had a rash of
Stewardship Marriage And A Reason To Live
SPEAKER_02really horrible stuff among the married folks at uh at my at my old company. I I like explained Ephesians 5 to my company on a Friday, like go home for the weekend formation. Those were the sorts of opportunities that I found myself in in the Marine Corps, and then I retired and that was gone. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Sorry, because some people are like, you're not allowed to evangelize or proselytize in the military, and they mean that means they can't bring any of their Christianity to work. So you didn't like stand up and read Ephesians five to your formation. You were paraphrasing the concepts and ideas in Ephesians five of like, hey, go home and love your wives, sacrifice for your wives.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I was proposing to them a logical framework that I don't think you have to be a Christian to read that advice and understand like and it would benefit you. That's probably pretty good advice.
SPEAKER_04Right. And then the rest of the story is, hey, like this guy, Jesus. Right. But you can do that one-on-one, you can do that after the fact, and you'll yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_00I'm hearing just a lot of purpose. Like you guys have said the word purpose a lot. Like, what's my life's purpose? Where am I at? A lot of life reflection. And I think that, and you guys have mentioned identity quite a few times in here. And I just if I could draw a chart that all is linked, like purpose, identity, but it reminds me of stewardship. Like we're called to steward the time God's given us in these lives, and stewardship is simply caring for that which belongs to another. And our lives belong to Christ. And so as I sit here and listen to you guys process out like what that looks like to transition out of the uniform, I think it's a wrestle. Brian, you mentioned like what would advise would John give to the first enlistment, second enlistment guy? I think these are things that even wives and husbands, it would be beneficial if you started to process through those together, even after you have an enlistment or a deployment happens. Like be thinking about where does my identity lie? Is my purpose simply to honor and glorify God? And maybe that is not always pouring in to massive amounts of people because that identity shift happens. For me as a wife, I think Joshua did better getting out than I did. I came from a military family, I married a Marine. There were times I was like, ministry's hard. Let's just go back in the military. And he was like, Are you crazy? Do you remember the military? And I was like, Yes, I do. And it was easier. No, let's do it. But as I sit here and listen, and just I want to encourage you guys out there to not wait until you're upon exiting whatever branch of service you're in or retiring from whatever branch of service. You should really be working through these things weekly, daily, in your own spiritual life. Like, how am I stewarding my life? Where's my identity placed? What is my actual purpose here?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the catechism tells us.
SPEAKER_04The scriptures, yeah, answer this.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04Answer all these questions. Our our identity as Christians is in Christ. We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We have a purpose to glorify God. You mentioned the catechism to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And there's some really big purposes like make disciples of all nations. Like that'll keep us busy for the rest of our lives. Make disciples of all nations. What's my point in that purpose? The other one is a not figuring this out. There's a reason we're losing 22-ish veterans a day at their own hand. And it's a it's a host of things, but one is a lack of identity and a lack of purpose. Like I have no reason to live anymore, therefore I might as well end it. We have to answer these questions. We have to answer these questions biblically. We have to answer these questions the earlier in life possible, answer these questions. First enlistment, second enlistment, before you join would be great. But the best day to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Second best day is today. So uh start the process today.
SPEAKER_00I just love what John was saying and just the realness and rawness of that. So I appreciate that. Like, hey, this was difficult because even when you're doing the work to process some of that, when it ends, I I just truly believe that silent space is where we hear God speak most, where he tears back the curtain and exposes some of the things in our hearts that maybe we were blind to. I don't know if that happened for you, John, but that happened for me as a military wife on that side. Like I didn't place my identity in the military, but the retirement really pulled back and showed me some places. Is there any last thoughts that you want to leave with these young people that are listening? Like anything that's burning that you're just want to like I have to say
Discomfort As Sanctification And Next Steps
SPEAKER_00this.
SPEAKER_02I think in all of this discomfort, I think that it is it it would be it would be foolish to miss that that is a an opportunity, a means for sanctification. I think anytime we're uncomfortable, we're inclined to seek comfort, make this go away. I would offer to you that it's a it's an opportunity for God to work in you, for you to bring that need, that need behind the need to him. And that would be my my key encouragement. Anybody who's thinking about what's my purpose right now? Yeah, what has my purpose become? If that original purpose is gone, um, bring that discomfort to him, be sanctified, draw near to him, find your purpose, your satisfaction, your comfort in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00That's really good. Amen. Yeah, that's really good. Because those needs are there for a reason, right? To draw us to the Lord. Amen. Don't run from them. Well, guys, our producer over here, Joshua, is telling us it is time. We appreciate you guys tuning in every Monday, listening. If this episode resonated with you, or if you know somebody that's close to getting out of the military, maybe they have gotten out of the military, shoot this episode to them. And we would love to hear from you with questions you have or topics you want us to cover, guests you'd like us to have on. You can email us at hello at military wellness collective.com. That's hello at military wellness collective.com. And we'll take a whole episode to talk with you guys about the things that are important to you. We love you guys. We'll see you back here next Monday morning.
SPEAKER_06See you guys.