THE UN-UNIFORMED SOLDIERS

I've been thinking about our mission in this Salvation Army of ours and found at times to fall into the "Elijah syndrome". The syndrome where you find yourself thinking you are all alone. When I look at the small numbers of uniformed soldiers fighting alongside of us in the battle against evil, I can quickly find myself in a spiritual cave. But in God's wisdom, He finds new ways to encourage me...boy I usually feel like an idiot after He's opened my eyes. I wonder if this is how Elijah felt when he realized he wasn't the only one zealous for God's righteousness. Sheesh, sometimes we think it's all about us!
Anyway, God showed me the un-uniformed soldiers that have been right there with us. Incognito, camouflaged soldiers...but there fighting just as hard (sometimes if not harder) as the uniformed. I'm thinking of the men and women on our Advisory Boards, volunteers, and community groups that work with us to complete our mission (sometimes even without knowing it). Why then do we oftentimes feel the need to keep the work internal? So what if there are a million energy assistance groups out there, we've got to do it! So what if there are other resources that we can plug into that dare I say do things better than us...we've got to do it! Sadly, we see so much burn out because we want to do things better, bigger, and with our name on it..we miss the valiant efforts of many un-uniformed soldiers.
Is this a wake up call? Yes. Is this a call to men and women to continue the fight? Yes. We may be tired, we may be drained, we may be frustrated...but we are NOT alone. When there isn't another navy blue polyester-clad man, woman, or child near...know that in the trenches there are the un-uniformed soldiers that can aid in our mission.