Former Navy SEAL Chad Williams, spoke at Pastor Greg Laurie\u2019s California megachurch Harvest Christians Fellowship, sharing through his own story how living for ourselves leaves us hungry and thirsty for more, a fact that made him turn to Christ for fulfillment in life.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Williams, who was last posted in Iraq, decided to be a Navy SEAL when he was a teenager, as he wanted to do something worthwhile, something challenging in his life. He told his dad about it. His dad then contacted Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston on the Internet, and requested him to meet his son and tell him the reality, that he cannot become one. But when Williams met Scott, he proved himself to be serious about it. Scott began to train him on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
In 2004, when Williams was finally about to go for his training, Scott left for an assignment in Iraq.<\/p>\n
One day soon thereafter, Chad turned on his television and saw a smiling still image of Scott. On the ticker underneath the screen was mentioned Scott\u2019s birthdate and \u201cMarch 31, 2004,\u201d separated by a dash. Then he watched the video footage of Scott, who was like a second father to him, being viciously murdered and mutilated, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and then hung upside-down from the Euphrates River Bridge, as an Iraqi mob repeatedly chanted in Arabic, \u201cFallujah is the graveyard of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said watching that tape changed him completely, and further motivated him to make it through the SEAL training.<\/p>\n
And he made it. He graduated as a SEAL, but only to find that he wasn\u2019t as happy as he thought he would be. He quoted Christian thinker Ravi Zachariah, who said, \u201cOne of the loneliest moments a man will ever experience is when he has achieved that which he thought would deliver the ultimate and in the end it lets him down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, author of SEAL of God , added that when we are disappointed with our achievement, we begin to reason with ourselves and raise the bar. We get into a \u201cvicious cycle,\u201d until we reach the top, only to be disappointed again.<\/p>\n
This is what happens \u201cwhen you invest only into yourself for only what the world has to offer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was better off not being a SEAL in my mind and looking forward to becoming a SEAL \u2013 because then, at least, I had something to drive me, to invest into. But now that I have arrived, I realize that I\u2019m just the same person. I had to put on a front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said he got into drinking. His parents always wanted him to go to church, but he resisted. But one day in March 2007, when he needed to pick up a keg of beer that he had stashed in the garage of their parents\u2019 home, he told his parents he would go with them to a special event at their church that day. He thought after they\u2019re all back from church, he would go to the garage and pick up the keg.<\/p>\n
At the church that night, Pastor Greg Laurie preached from 2 Kings chapter 5, about a Syrian commander, Naaman. Williams could relate with Naaman. And when Laurie explained how Naaman\u2019s leprosy was like our sin, Williams understood what needed to be done. He received Jesus into his heart.<\/p>\n
Williams said his life changed, and he has never returned to drinking.<\/p>\n
Williams also mentioned Friday\u2019s Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 350 others. He said his job in Iraq was to hunt down \u201csome pretty evil men,\u201d who were just like the attackers in Paris, people who make suicide belts and bombs.<\/p>\n
What motivates Islamist jihadists is that they think they are doing God a service by killing \u201cinfidels,\u201d he explained. They want to create a worldwide caliphate. But \u201cthey\u2019ve bought into a lie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Navy SEAL Chad Williams, spoke at Pastor Greg Laurie\u2019s California megachurch Harvest Christians Fellowship, sharing through his own story how living for ourselves leaves us hungry and thirsty for more, a fact that made him turn to Christ for fulfillment in life. ________ Williams, who was last posted in Iraq, decided to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[695,738,654,2913,279,325,3895,3893,455,3892,3894],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}