What Leading Sailors Taught Me About Faith Under Pressure

I’ve worn a uniform for more than fourteen years now. A good stretch of that was spent recruiting, and these days, as a Chief, I spend most of my time around people who are younger than me and still working out who they’re going to be.

I figured I was there to teach them. It hasn’t turned out that way. They’ve taught me about as much as I’ve taught them, and a lot of it was about faith, which isn’t in any Navy job description I’ve read.

Pressure doesn’t create anything

People like to say pressure reveals character. I’d put it a little differently. Pressure shows you what you’ve been practicing.

A Sailor who has gotten into the habit of doing small things right usually holds together when a day goes sideways. Shows up on time. Checks the gear twice. Admits a mistake before somebody else finds it. The Sailor who has been cutting corners usually doesn’t hold together, and you can see it happen. Nobody turns disciplined in the middle of a crisis. They just find out whether they already were.

I grew up in a pastor’s home, so I’d heard this idea for years in church language: be faithful in the little things. I never connected the two until I’d watched it play out in the Navy over and over. Faith works the same way. The quiet daily stuff is what you’re standing on when the ground shakes. Prayer on an ordinary Tuesday, keeping your word, doing right by your family when nobody would notice if you didn’t.

Being in charge teaches you how little you control

This one surprised me. You’d think a leader would feel more in control, but it goes the other way. The more people you’re responsible for, the more you realize how much is out of your hands. You can train, plan, and prepare, and still be standing there when something happens that nobody saw coming.

That’s where I’ve had to learn to let go. You do your part, all of it, and you do it well. Then you hand over what you can’t carry. I’d call that faith, and it isn’t a comfortable feeling. It took me a long time to stop gripping things that were never mine to hold up.

Humility is a good look on a leader

The best leaders I’ve worked for were quick to say, “I got that wrong.” It never made them smaller. Their people trusted them more, because everybody knew where they stood.

Pride is tiring. You spend all your energy protecting an image. Humility is lighter, and it leaves room for God to work in you, which He can’t really do while you’re busy pretending you’ve got it handled.

What I tell Sailors who doubt themselves

Young Sailors sometimes come to me wondering if they’re cut out for this. Usually they’re tired, a little homesick, and sure everyone else has it figured out.

I tell them they don’t need to feel ready. They need to take the next step, then the one after that. I’ve said it so many times I’ve started hearing it as advice for myself, and for anyone dealing with something heavy right now.

You may not see how the whole thing works out. Nobody does. Just stay faithful with what’s in front of you today.

If this sounded like you

I wrote The Strength to Stand for people in the middle of hard seasons. It pulls from my time growing up in the church, my marriage, and my years leading Sailors. I’m not a perfect man, and the book doesn’t pretend otherwise. It’s one believer talking honestly to another about how God builds strength in us when life presses down.

If the part about humility hit home, Chapter 3, “Leading Like Christ,” takes it further. And Chapter 4 is all about why small acts of obedience matter more than we think.