Judge Not...

Sitting here tonight thanking God for answering prayer...
And reminiscing about a dear friend of mine  (God rest his soul) that I met as a teenager.
He did 4 tours in Vietnam, the last 2 as a navy seal/Frogman
I was the only one on the planet he would talk to, his PTSD was so bad, he would disappear for days from the public.
Even his awesome employer knew what was wrong when he wouldn't show up for work for 5 or 6 days a couple times per year. (Where are employers like this today?)
They would leave groceries on his front porch, and I would go by and bring them in, put them away...and go to his study...where I would find him sitting in the north corner of the storage closet with a bottle of jim beam.
He would say, Bobby?  Is that you?
Yes...it is..i would answer.
I would bring him 2 cheese sandwichs...
And he would cry as he ate them looking at me thanking me for not judging him for his PTSD and drinking.
He was a full blown Christian...loved God..trusted God...
But refused pills...
And anyone who tries to tell me he's in hell will get punched in the mouth.

But...my most memorable moment with my dear friend was...when he and his soon to be exwife (who was a literal psychopath) took me to a Vietnamese restaurant.
We sat there and laughed and talked for a while.
Then the waitress came by, and he ordered for all of us in fluent Vietnamese! She was so impressed, she went and got her entire family from the kitchen...he sat there and talked to them, and interpreted to me for, I'm guessing 3 hours...
By this time, his wife had gotten up and LEFT. (WOW)
But, I was sitting there listening to the most beautiful language I've ever heard in my life, coming from a man who NEVER GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL!
There were, I'm guessing 15 Vietnamese people around him all laughing and hugging him...the two elderly ladies kissed him many times on the top of his bald head.

He is gone now...the liquor finally took his life.  But the life he lived was incomparable to anyone's life I have ever known.

I said all this for a reason...

Sometimes you have a vision of someone that you have created in you own mind...
Be it great or lowly...

But never underestimate the mind of anyone who has endured tragedy after tragedy in their life.....
For their level of wisdom will one day dwarf your idea of what they are actually capable of doing.

Vietnamese is one of hardest languages in the WORLD to learn FLUENTLY!

Rest in peace Master Chief!

Hooyah!

Once again from the grave, you have blessed my soul.

Bobby D