*When I left the small town of my feckless youth to find my fortune the last three things on my list of what I thought I would become were soldier, lawyer, and father. And yet, that is what happened. Even with the advantage of retrospection it is difficult for me chart the course that led me here. And while this life has been rewarding, it has been complicated and at times exhausting. I sometimes look back on the simplicity of my younger days and ask why didn’t I just take the blue pill and stay right where I was?
It would have been easier. For if I had been in search of an education into the meaning of the aphorism that no good deed goes unpunished, I could hardly have picked three better occupations than soldier, lawyer, and father, for at the heart of all three is the requirement to abandon oneself and live for others. A soldier fights for his nation, a lawyer serves the interests of his clients and father sacrifices all he has for his children. For a man as selfish as I am, that’s an inherent conflict that is going to leave a mark, and it has on me.
Yet I persist.
If you have read the QSource , you may be questioning whether persisting is worth it. Why not let some other somebody be That Somebody? That’s a reasonable question to which we have no logical answer, but only a feeling—which I will try to describe.
There will be days, usually after a dry season of discontent, when you will find yourself standing in the sunken road of your life, facing something dangerous coming your way that you can feel but not quite see. Gathered behind you will be the people who have chosen to rely upon you for no other reason than you have told them that you were a man upon whom they could rely.
And in that moment, you feel very alone.
But it will also be at that moment that the dirty breeze will briefly part the clouds, and for just an instant the sun will cause your battered armor to shine brightly. It is then that a voice will whisper in your ear: you are here in harm’s way because I called forth a warrior and you said Aye. Now go fight.
And with a shove, the owner of that voice will push you forward to fight another day. And as you draw your broadsword, as you knew you would, you will be thankful that you had the help of your Brothers, in keeping it sharp, for just as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.
Now Brothers, go fight for the ones you love.
*reprinted with permission, from the QSource: The F3 Manual of Virtuous Leadership