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Veterans Day interview John Maisel
It is easy to forget in our day-to-day lives the fact that freedom isn’t free. Veterans Day is a day to think and reflect on the deep sacrifices all American veterans have made to keep our country free. It is also a time to honor the courageous men and women who have served our country because without them this country wouldn’t be what it is today.
John Maisel, President of East-West Ministries, is a seasoned veteran in more ways than one. A former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart as a result of his time in Vietnam. John played football at Oklahoma State University and was voted MVP of the team before signing with the Houston Oilers. He graduated with degrees in Business and Philosophy and spent over a decade developing an entrepreneurial business as a means to support Christian ministry. In 1992, John founded East-West Ministries International and was their CEO for 18 years. He now serves as Chairman Emeritus and currently resides in Dallas.
What led you to the Marine Corps?
I became a Christian when I was at Oklahoma State University and after my time there I signed with the Houston Oilers. My whole identity up until that point in my life was wrapped up in athletics. When I got cut from the Oilers, I had a semester before I graduated and I was in a program that would let me have a commission in the Marine Corps at that time. So I took that commission and went off to officer school.
There is nothing more painful for Christian then to be out of fellowship with the Lord, and I was big time out of fellowship with Him. I began to realize that I wanted to get my life back on track. In officer school I started reading the Bible again and figuring out what it meant to have a real relationship with Christ. After officer school I was shipped overseas for a year. God really began to work on my heart and speak to me through the Bible- I couldn’t get enough of it. Anytime I had down time I was sitting in a corner of the officers club reading my Bible. A real defining time in my life took place that first year and a half while I was in the Marine Corps.
How did your faith impact you while you were serving in the Marines?
My wife and I got married when I was a junior in college and those first few years of marriage were really hard. I was gone almost two years in Vietnam and operating off of a submarine, but it was a defining time for me. The presence of Jesus was so real to me in the midst of fire fights because I believed that nothing would touch me unless God allowed it to and a week before I was supposed to return to the States I got shot. Usually a month before you are scheduled to go home you don’t have to go out on operations because as you get close to the end you start to get nervous that something might happen. I had a perspective that I could die but my men couldn’t die and nothing would touch me unless God allowed it.
I volunteered for a mission in a pretty hot area less than week before I was supposed to be discharged. That night we were in a perimeter and we were going to sweep surrounding area the next day. I remember I was sitting outside in the jungle and could see every single star in the sky. There is nothing like seeing the stars out in the jungle- the stars were literally dancing that night. I walked out of the bunker and laid down outside and in a short period of time all hell broke lose and I could hear shots being fired from all directions. Before I could really react I caught a bullet in the leg. I think God’s finger was in that because when I came back I came back on a stretcher and was in the hospital. It really gave my wife and I an opportunity to re-enter life together. This past year we just celebrated our 50th anniversary so God knew what He was doing there.
If you had one piece of advice to give the younger generation, what would it be?
There are three things that come to mind. Somewhere along the line when Jesus says, “I love you,” you have to make a decision to believe that. The second thing, when Jesus says, “I am with you always,” you have to decide if you are really going to believe that. And when He says, “Trust me,” you’re going to have to decide if that is the way you’re going to live your life.
I am getting older and His love just gets sweeter. We throw the word love around an awful lot, I love the Cowboys, I love hamburgers, I love racing, etc. But when God says, “I love you,” His love is perfect- it cannot be improved upon, no matter your circumstances. It is not when I have good days He loves me more or bad days He loves me less. It is not fickle like ours. God can only love in one way, and that is perfectly.
I believe, not only to the younger generation but to the church as well, that God is shouting out, “I love you, will you trust me?” He is trying to shock our hearts with whatever circumstances He puts us in, to begin to rest in the sufficiency that His love can be trusted. The law of His love says that He must seek the highest good for us. God is actually locked into a law that He can only make choices that are for our highest good because that is the law of love. You seek the highest good of that which you love and God loves perfectly.
So it’s beginning to question do I really believe that when my sight and my feelings and my world and my circumstances are turned upside down, do I believe that God is in control? Only in that context can a person truly begin to say in everything give thanks. You cannot thank God for pain, sorrow, disappointment, shattered dreams, as well as for your successes, your victories, and your triumphs- unless you really see He has purpose in all things. I can either miss it through my complaining, arguing and griping, or I can rest in it as Jesus did when he said that for the joy that lay before Him, He endured the cross.
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