Feb 24

Written by: Jay & Chris Henning
2/24/2010 5:26 PM 

    As a career soldier, I have often heard people refer to the acronym for TDY (which, by the way, the correct words for are Temporary Duty) as Temporary Divorce for a Year. This travesty of a misinterpretation of this acronym most prevalently occurs when married soldiers are assigned to one-year unaccompanied tours to South Korea. Some married soldiers who do not serve Christ and His Kingdom purposes use this time as an excuse to commit adultery and other sins of choice. However, I would like to propose a new possible acronym for TDY to people who claim Christ as their Savior: Tapping Directly into Yahweh.

    Please allow me to share a little bit of my personal testimony and Christ's victories in my family life before I share the Scripture to go along with this entry. At the time I got saved, my wife was not serving Jesus and was not even living with me for awhile. For three years, I prayed for my wife to serve Jesus. When my wife gave her heart to Jesus, I thought my life was now complete and we could go on serving Jesus happily as a family until Jesus called one of us to go home and be with Him. One month after my wife got saved, I found out I was on orders to go on one of these previously mentioned unaccompanied year long tours to Korea. So, six months after my wife got saved, there I was in Korea, newly licensed and looking for ministerial opportunities while my wife was back at the church I had been discipled in, befriending women of God who taught her the ins and outs of becoming a Godly wife and mother. It was there that I learned the value of this Scripture:

    "But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. ³³ But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife. ³⁴ There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. ³⁵ And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction." ~ 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, New King James Version

    Now, those Words didn't necessarily come to me at that time, but I learned the lesson in that section of Scripture during our time away from each other. Granted, we are not "unmarried" as the Scripture states, but the principle that it teaches can be applied to married people who are apart from each other. Married people have to spend time with each other in order to develop, nurture, and love each other deeper. People who are married but living apart, during schooling, deployments, unaccompanied tours, and other absences can use that time to develop their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it, do I in no way condone leaving a spouse in order to fulfill some personal vendetta or get away from a spouse. However, if God presents an absence from each other through deployment, unaccompanied tour, or schooling, use it as an opportunity to Tap Directly into Yahweh. By the way, in case you are unfamiliar with the term Yahweh, it is the Hebrew word for Jehovah, or God. As I'm writing this, I'm on R & R leave from my second Operation Iraqi Freedom tour in the last three years. Each of these tours, along with the aforementioned unaccompanied tour to Korea, my wife and I have used as opportunities to tap deeper into the things of God for our individual lives. Just like a marriage relationship, the church as a whole is the Bride of Christ. Jesus wants us to develop our individual relationships with Him just as a marriage. In order to nurture and develop a relationship with a spouse, you need to invest time and love. Our relationship with Christ (as His bride) is no different. The more time we spend with Him, the deeper our relationship will grow and we will be better equipped to fulfill His Kingdom purposes for our lives.