Heed and behoove

[toad]

“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his brother.”
KAHIL GIBRAN

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” HEBREWS 2:1 KJV

Forty-two years ago on a cold dark February day, at six o’clock in the morning, I entered the Armed Forces building in Kansas City Missouri. It was a small building compared to the Post Office and Union Station which were both diagonally across Broadway. At that time in my life I had many fears and doubts, I was being drafted into military service and the Vietnam War was raging over the horizon. I had already had my pre-induction physical and this was my induction physical. They told me to bring a few items such as toothbrush, comb, soap, shampoo, and a couple changes of clothes, and that my chances of going to military service were very probable. After all day of being tested and examined I was walked over in front of the post office with about one hundred other guys to wait for the busses that were to take us to Fort Leonard Wood. I spent three days there to be issued my military clothing and to get shots; I was then bussed with several hundred other men to Fort Campbell Kentucky. It was after mid-night, pitch black, and raining when we arrived. As we walked off the busses into the rain there was mass confusion taking place. These army sergeants were running around hollering, screaming, and shouting names. Some were our names and others were names that I would rather not mention. The confusion was only in our minds, they soon had us lined up and organized into groups. We were totally soaked as they marched us to our new home. We arrived wet and miserable in front of our two storied, wooden, coal heated barracks. The fun had just begun. During the next eight weeks I started hearing words that I had never heard and have never forgot. I remember one sergeant named Sgt. Crozer, he was a 101st Airborne Recondo and he said, “You need to heed to what I tell you, and it would behoove you to act upon it. It will save your life.” I was not familiar with the words heed and behoove, but I understood the term “it will save your life.” I started paying attention because I did not want to die. This was fundamental stuff, and to live I would need a solid foundation built upon these military principles. Two and a half years later I returned from Vietnam. Having a working knowledge of the fundamentals of infantry training contributed to my return. Heeding and behooving paid off. Today my battles are different but I still realize that I must heed and behoove the message that I receive from the Bible, Big Book, my sponsor, and what is heard around the tables of Alcoholics Anonymous. Today I cannot afford to let life saving messages just slip by, knowing that I am always just one drink away from a drunk and one drunk away from death. Today.......one day at a time.....God is doing for me what I could not do for myself............toad

[mxchaos]

today I can not afford to forget that I'm also one drunk away from death