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Spiritual Enlightenment from Donald Rumsfeld
By Phillip Hampton
March 7, 2005

I recently suffered through another perfectionism crisis, right in the middle of a church service of all places. The worship and music this Sunday was just not tight — the musicians weren’t in synch with the worship team, the worship leader was yet on another page, and the congregation seemed like they were a million miles away from anything resembling worship. As I sang, I could scarcely conceal my feelings of despair and futility. I really just wanted to walk off the platform, down the aisle, out the back door, call it quits and hope for a better service somewhere down the road. It was in this instant of extreme humanity that the words of Donald Rumsfeld, the esteemed U.S. Secretary of Defense, hit me like a ton of bricks and sent me down the road to quick repentance.

The ever-colorful Donald Rumsfeld was conducting what I’m sure he thought would be a rather routine town hall meeting with Iraq-bound National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait on December 8, 2004. Little did he know that a then unknown National Guardsman from Tennessee and the glaring eye of the media’s cameras would rock the Secretary’s carefully crafted public persona.

From out of left field, Rumsfeld was put on the spot by a question from Army Spc. Thomas Wilson asking why his National Guard unit was basically having to scavenge scrap metal to help armor their vehicles. The message was clear — why are you sending us into war with less than perfect armaments and protection? The brief stunned look on Rummy’s face was unmistakable for those who have seen the incessant replays of the exchange in the news media. Then, recovering, Rumsfeld issued a rambling answer, most of which the American public has never heard. What they did hear, however, was one fateful sentence lifted from the Secretary’s answer that gave his critics explosive fodder to try to damage his credibility. Rumsfeld, in his own cocky, know-it-all kind of manner, blurted out to the young soldier, “As you know, you have to go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.”

The media has pounced on that statement by the Secretary of Defense, and critics and supporters alike have pilloried Rumsfeld for everything from insensitivity to neglect. I must admit, the first time I heard the quote I winced myself. The statement seems harsh, stark, and particularly void of nuance. However difficult the Secretary’s response may have been to an anxious American public, to worried parents who have children in harm’s way, or to nervous soldiers about to enter the battlefield for the first time, the stark truth of Rumsfeld’s oft-quoted utterance wears well with time and is not only instructional, but also inspirational.

In fact, it was this now famous Rumsfeldism that jolted me out of my whiny petulance that Sunday morning in church. As I stood there half mad and half exasperated because everything wasn’t going perfectly in my church, a slight mutation of the Rummy quote snapped me to attention — “As you know, you have to go to war with the church you have, not the church you want.”

Startled, I thought about the spiritual implications of what the Secretary had said (acutely aware that Mr. Rumsfeld certainly spoke under no sense of spiritual anointing and also acutely aware that God has spoken truth through the mouth of a donkey in the past). The message that God was communicating to me was clear. If we wait until the stars are in perfect alignment and we are completely invulnerable to failure before engaging in warfare, then it is quite certain that the battle will never be waged.

Scripture repeatedly uses the metaphor of warfare to describe the battle that every believer wages in the walk of faith. In my mind, I would like the battle plan to be clear cut, flawless, impenetrable to any distraction. The fact is, however, we do suffer setbacks, we sometimes are over exposed, the people who make up the church are less than perfect, and we fall. God acknowledges as much when His Word declares that He knows our frame - that we are but dust (Psalm 103:14). Yet He still calls us to warfare knowing our limitations, our imperfections, our vulnerabilities.

Future King of Israel, David, understood the Rumsfeldian axiom when he alone went to fight the giant Philistine while the rest of the army quaked in fear. He went to war with the weapon he had, a mere slingshot and some rocks, not the weapon he may have wanted in the “perfect situation.”

Moses set out on a most audacious and ambitious mission, the deliverance of the enslaved Hebrews out of the hand of a world superpower. Scripture tells us that Moses was fraught with feelings of inadequacy. When Moses complained, God’s answer was much the same — you go to Pharaoh with what you’ve got in your hand — don’t fret about what you don’t have.

Now, I don’t mean to over spiritualize what the good Secretary said that fateful day last December; nor do I wish to be insensitive to the dangers that exist for our men and women in uniform. But the lesson of Rumsfeld’s statement (perhaps unintended) is just too good to ignore.

How many times have we sat on the sidelines waiting for an audible voice, a supernatural feeling, a good paying job, a spouse, a special endowment of talent, a certain birthday, recognition from peers, or simply self-confidence that our mission was destined for victory before we stuck our neck out and tried to accomplish anything ambitious? The shoulder of the road to greatness is lined with so many aspirants who simply gave up because they felt ill prepared to forge ahead to the next mile marker.

I think God would say (and Rumsfeld certainly would echo): “You have to go to war with the person you are, not the person you want to be.” Amen, Bro. Rumsfeld!

ninetyandnine.com

© 2005, Phillip Hampton

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Phillip Hampton is an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com.