Sermon Illustrations

NAVY SEALS

I don’t know much about the army but here is something I read recently about those Navy Seals who shot Osama Bin Laden. It’s good to be a Navy SEAL right now. The elite sailors are being showered with praise for their successful operation in Pakistan that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden this week.

About 25 to 35 percent of those who enter SEAL training crash and burn during the Basic Underwater Demolition training, known as BUD/S, and never make it to become full members of the force and get their Trident pin, military sources said. It’s not just the physical demands of SEAL training that breaks sailors. “Traditionally what has broken candidates is they can’t handle it mentally,” said Ward Carroll, editor of Military.com.

To qualify, sailors have to pass physical, mental and intelligence screening before they can even start training. Only men ages 17-28 with good eyesight and no felony record are admitted.

After six months of initial training candidates need to be able to swim 1000 meters (.6 of a mile) in 20 minutes, do at least 70 pushups in two minutes and run four miles in under 31 minutes wearing long pants.

Then comes Hell Week: five and a half days in which candidates train for 20 hours a day, run more than 200 miles and sleep a total of just four hours.

Oh Wow! It sounds to me like those guys have to endure a great deal of hardship just to become a Navy SEAL. Aren’t you glad that life isn’t that hard? And the Christian life? However, no matter who you are and no matter how good of a Christian you are, you will have to endure some hardship in this life!

(From a sermon by Steve Shepherd, Life is Like..., 5/9/2011)

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