Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps.

• Proverbs 16:9

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

• Philippians 3:14

Have you ever driven down an interstate highway, or the autobahn, and you pass a military convoy?

Driving on the major highways of the world, in many countries at least, there is no problem getting heavy equipment from point “A” to point “B”.  But getting to the major highway, or from the major highway to the ultimate destination, might be a problem.

In wartime, it might not be the smartest move in driving military equipment down these major highways.

That is where engineering reconnaissance comes in.

You look at a war plan and you realize that you need to get a military unit from point “A” to point “B”.  You have to use the side roads because the enemy bombers have made a mess out of the primary routes.

So, just looking on a map to see a route is not good enough.  Once on an engineering recon, there was a curve in the road that was extremely tight.  The map was not detailed enough to tell for sure, but here it was, a switchback on the side of a steep hill.  So, picture a sergeant and a lieutenant in military uniforms with hard hats, dodging traffic to make measurements of the radius of the curve.  With a few simple calculations, that entire segment of the road is unavailable due to the curve being too tight.  The eighteen-wheeler flatbeds that are hauling earthmoving equipment, for example, would get stuck in the curve.

Have you ever seen a big truck deliver a relatively small package to an office building?  They try backing in but they cannot turn that well.  They go forward. They go back.  They finally deliver the package, but no one in the building could leave to get lunch since the driveway was blocked.  And they only succeeded after taking out two trees, a few shrubs, the mailbox, and the big boss’ prize Mercedes Benz.  Otherwise, no problem.

But if that was a military convoy, you would be stuck there, waiting on the enemy to think about dropping a bomb, but why?  You are stuck.  You can’t even back out of the problem.

So, then you find another route, just to get in the middle of nowhere and there is an insignificant creek, with an insignificant bridge.  The bridge is so insignificant that half of the military unit’s heavy vehicles would cause the bridge to collapse.  More calculations, and another red “X” on a route.

And then, after you have determined one route, they want you to find an alternate route.

And if you are like I was on one particular recon mission in western West Germany, the driver sheepishly says, “Sir, I don’t know if we will ever find the alternate route.  I’m about out of gas.”

The three of us (lieutenant, sergeant, and driver) barely had enough German coins to get enough gas to get back home.

So, while we plan our lives, God determines our steps.  But an engineer checked first, to see if the route was capable of getting you there.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.