At Air Force Basic Training, there’s a stretch where recruits spend time in conditions that simulate a field deployment. Instead of focusing on Air Force customs, academics, how to salute, march, etc., trainees focus on some of the fundamental skills necessary for functioning in a combat zone. It’s here that trainees first fire weapons, learn about field hygiene and first aid, etc.
One of the more memorable activities is learning how to use a gas mask. Trainees spent the greater part of the day learning how to properly don a gas mask, when to put on a chemical suit, and generally experience how cumbersome it becomes to perform routine tasks while wearing a heavy suit in hot weather and trying to take a drink from a canteen while wearing a gas mask.
We spent most of the day learning how to use the equipment properly, and the culmination of the experience was “getting gassed.” We put on our equipment and filed into a square room that had a pedestal in the middle of it. Each group that went into the room stood with their backs against a wall. There were some instructors that gave us directions and then came around to inspect the way we had donned our masks. At the end, one of the instructors walked to the pedestal in the middle of the room and activated some tear gas on it.
It’s a little unsettling to see a big white cloud rising and filling the room. Tear gas…isn’t that the stuff they use on rioters? You start to instinctively hold your breath, but you eventually decide to give this gas mask thing a try. You take some little breaths just to make sure you’re not going to start coughing like a maniac. The air smells weird, but you can breathe it. You don’t seem to have any reaction so far, so you start breathing deeper. Before long you’re breathing just like you practiced earlier in the day, and you’re able to function in a chemical environment.
Then the fun part comes. It would’ve been nice to experience an environment like this, then walk out the door and say to the instructors “thanks fellas, that was pretty cool to see.” If we had done that though, the lesson wouldn’t have been cemented into our minds. In order to make the lesson stick, the instructors wanted us to understand how well our equipment was protecting us. To help us do that, we filed toward the exit door in pairs. Still in a gas-filled room, we were directed to remove our masks and provide a verbal response to a question the instructors asked us. They wanted us to have to breathe in the stuff our equipment had been protecting us from, and this aspect of the training helped us remember the experience in a much more vivid manner. I know I wasn’t able to finish answering the instructor before I started coughing, and he waved me out the door and into the fresh air.
It’s one thing to know something in your mind, and it’s something different to experience it. There were plenty of other times in the Air Force where I donned gas masks during exercises, but that was the only time I’ve ever had to use a gas mask to actually protect myself from something that threatened harm to my body. The more you use the equipment, the more comfortable you become with it.
It’s the same thing with following Christ. We “practice with our equipment” by building a relationship with Him. That means spending time together: reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and removing unnecessary or harmful things from your life.
As you walk with Christ, you’ll find that He gives you assignments to do. Rather than giving you something you think is easy to do, however, He likes to challenge you. Those challenges stretch you and make you lean on Him to do the things you can’t. Sometimes they’re physically easy to do, but they take a certain boldness to complete. Others are completely beyond you, but you find that once you step out in faith, the pieces start falling into place because He’s paving the way for you. Much like the gas mask training, the trust you build in this endeavor enables you to overcome the worry and preoccupation of “will this work when I need it to?” As a result, with His power and support you’re able to operate and excel in environments where you can’t even breathe on your own.
This is my one hundredth post! Many thanks to my faithful readers, and to those that just stumbled upon this site. I hope you’re somehow blessed by what you read here! Feel free to share on social media or email, or leave a comment. You can also email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.