Hit Refresh in 2022Muestra

Throughout the 1970’s I was in the Special Forces, and we fought a very intense war against two massive communist armies, one trained in Russia and one trained in China.

We were being invaded by these two armies and most of that war was fought on home soil.

But as a SAS soldier, a lot of my operations were not on home soil, they were behind enemy lines in other countries.

We often parachuted late at night hundreds of kilometres behind enemy lines. Most of the time, there were only three of us, but sometimes bigger groups, depending on the targets. And we were generally deployed in this role for six weeks at a time before we needed the 3R’s.

Yesterday I mentioned the 3R’s include REST, RECUPERATION, AND RETRAINING.

So, after we blew something up or attacked an enemy camp miles into their territory, we needed to melt into the bush and hide. For weeks at a time, we would survive on meagre rations, often living off the bush. We often ran out of water and our only water source was from hollow trees, digging up dry river beds, or sucking the sap of various vines we knew. But we always had to stay on the move!

Quite often we would face multiple other battles along the way. For example, if the designated escape route was blocked by the enemy, or because HQ sent us on another assignment. Malaria was a constant threat. I had malaria twice, both times deep behind enemy lines in Mozambique, and just had to lie in thick bush and sweat it out for two weeks each time.

By the time we got back to the Rhodesian border, negotiated the anti-personnel minefields which surrounded Rhodesia (which was pretty hairy itself), and crossed back over the Rhodesian border, we were completely scrambled!

We were physically emaciated (having lost 15 - 20 kgs), tired, drawn emotionally, and completely exhausted. We needed to hit refresh!

You know on many of those ops once we crossed the border the Rhodesian army would be waiting to take us back to the capital. We climbed into those trucks and fell asleep, not waking up for 48 hours. I did ops where they left us in the trucks for two days to just let us sleep!

On some occasions, we did what we called “columns into hostile neighbouring countries” whereby we took 20 armoured vehicles, and for three days and three nights, we just drove crazy along bush tracks and attacked enemy camps.

We stayed awake fighting for three days and three nights. The army gave us the precursor of speed to keep us awake as we could not stop, or we would be overwhelmed by the enemy. Again, we came back utterly exhausted physically and emotionally.

Therefore, we hit refresh! That meant we rested, and then we recuperated, and then we retrained until we were battle-ready again.

We needed to rebuild our bodies, rejuvenate our minds and emotions, and refocus on new strategies and tactics which our crazy mad commanders had conjured up.

This is what enabled us to zero in to meet the changing face of the war, and then get out and win those battles. And it worked! Those 3R’s set us up to re-engage with the enemy and win more battles.

If we did not do the 3R’s, we would have been blown away on the next op, and the enemy would have pushed us out of our own country.

It is important to note, the objectives had not changed between each six-week operation. We still needed to win the same war against a communist terrorist insurgency, but tactics and strategies changed, just as they do in our Christian world.

God has never changed His greater plan for the earth, but He introduces new strategies all the time and we need to be across these.

Below is an article that makes an important statement from a newspaper printed in London in 1978.

To provide some background information, Rhodesia had been at war with Great Britain since 1965, and the British had tried to starve us out with international sanctions for 13 years. This had not worked so they were considering sending troops in to invade Rhodesia and defeat us. But because we were an ex-British colony just like Australia is, they wanted one final attempt to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

So, the British sent a delegation to Rhodesia led by their Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen. He was incompetent, but part of that British delegation was a high-ranking military assessment group led by the very capable General Sir Walter Walker. The General was astounded at what he saw, and this article is what he wrote when he returned to London, and this was published by the London Times in 1978.

This article is not to big-note me or anything like that, but rather it is to show you that even the world’s most elite soldiers can get worn out, off track, distracted, to the extent they “do not know fully what they are doing” as it is so well put by the Amplified Bible, and they need to hit refresh.

But when we did the 3Rs, we then became unbeatable!

The same applies to us as Christians. We can be unbeatable if we stay on track with God. Remember when Jesus sent us out on the Great Commission of Matt 28, He said He would be with us even until the end of the age.

That in itself means we are unbeatable. But only if we stay on track with the Great Commission, as indicated by Acts 3:19.

Tomorrow I will be bringing the 3R’s into a biblical context. Even Jesus took time to rest, recoup, and retrain – so we ought to do the same!