#boasting

Salvation is a Gift

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 not of works, lest any man should boast. — Ephesians 2:8-9 | Cambridge Paragraph Bible (CAMB) The Cambridge Paragraph Bible of the Authorized English Version, by Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose, 1813-1891. Published by Cambridge University Press. Cross References: John 4:10, Acts 15:11; Romans 3:24; Romans 3:28; Romans 9:16; 1 Corinthians 1:29; Ephesians 2:5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 1:5

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Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

— James 4: 13- 16 (NIV)

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Trump’s speech to the generals and admirals: I don’t even know where to begin

Lucian K. Truscott IV

Sep 30, 2025

Photo: Reuters

“Unhinged” is one word I heard on the news shows describing Trump’s speech this morning. So is “bonkers.” One report called Trump “meandering” and “exhausted.” But no description could capture what took place in Quantico, Virginia this morning. All the papers and cable shows and commentators are talking about how Trump said he wants “dangerous cities” led by Democrats to be used as “training grounds” for the military, and that was on obvious outrage among many others, but I want to begin with Trump’s disquisition on walking up and down stairs.

He began by attacking Biden, naturally, complaining that “We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day – every day, the guy’s falling down stairs – and I said, that’s not our president. We can’t have it. I’m very careful, you know, when I walk down stairs, I walk…very…slowly. Nobody has to set a record. Just, try not to fall, ‘cause it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen, and it became a part of their legacy, you know. Walk nice and easy. You don’t have to set any records. Be cool! Be cool when you walk down, but don’t…don’t bop down the stairs. The one thing with Obama…I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs, I’ve never seen…da-da-da-da-teh-deh-bop-bop…I’ve never seen…he would go down those stairs, bop-bop, he wouldn’t hold on, he’d go down those stairs, I said, it’s great! I wouldn’t want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually, bad things are gonna happen, and it only takes one. A year ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. This country was going to hell. We had nothing.”

He went on. And on. And on. Seventy minutes, he blathered through his usual patter of lies, bigger lies, grievance, self-pity, and self adoration. I watched the speech, and he must have said the word “Biden” 30 times. It’s not really worth quoting any more of his lies and nonsense, because you’ve heard it before, heard it too many times.

So had the generals and admirals and noncommissioned officers. They are citizens. They either live in the United States, or they’re stationed overseas where American broadcasts are available via satellite. They know a rally speech when they hear one, and they knew that is what they had been ordered to travel great distances to listen to today. One report noted that the audience of the most senior uniformed officers in our military sat “stone-faced” through the whole thing, with only a momentary chuckle from a few in the audience at something Trump said. There was no applause during the speech despite the fact that Trump hit all his applause points like he does at his rallies.

It’s the bragging and exaggeration that must have really gotten to them. I ended eight wars! The pull out from Afghanistan was the worst day in the history of our country. I did this. I did that. Biden was the worst president. The Democrats don’t respect you and will never treat you right.

Trump seemed oblivious to the fact that everyone in that auditorium, during careers of as many as 30 years, had served under not only Biden, but Trump and Obama and Bush and Clinton. Most of them had seen combat. Most of them had their own experience with “the worst day” on the battlefield or in training accidents. They know that the Marines and the Army have had helicopter accidents that killed more soldiers in a single training incident than died in the terror attack in Kabul that killed 13 which Trump referred to.

In the culture of the U.S. military, generals and admirals don’t brag about themselves. The only bragging that is done by commanders in the military is about the accomplishments of the troops who serve under them. Not one of those generals or admirals had ever stood up before an audience in the military and cried out look at me! I’m the greatest! Look at all I’ve done!

Unseemly is not an adequate word to describe how generals and admirals and senior NCOs consider bragging. They don’t do it, and they don’t put up with it from others who serve with them.

I have concluded that today’s display of ego and bluster and falsehoods by Hegseth and Trump may have served a useful purpose after all. Every one of those generals and admirals and senior noncommissioned officers now has had personal experience with who they serve under. None of them could have missed the sexism in Hegseth’s speech when he told them that the military is “going back to male standards” for combat soldiers. All of them know that female soldiers have earned Ranger status by enduring the exact same hardships male soldiers endure. All of them know that women fly jets off and onto the pitching decks of aircraft carriers in dangerous seas. The Coast Guard admirals know that female officers command the same rescue boats that go out in impossible weather every day.

There were Black generals and admirals sitting amidst their white counterparts in that audience in Quantico today. Not one of them, white or Black, could have missed the rank racism when Trump imitated Barack Obama “bopping” down a set of stairs. Trump said he “never seen” anything like it, as if he were describing a tight end in a football game catching a difficult pass. None of them missed the racism when Trump mentioned, in speaking about “the nuclear” that there are two “N-words” you can’t say. Every person in that room knew what the other N-word is, and they got it that Trump was complaining that “political correct,” as he called it, had stopped its usage.

The really sad thing about what transpired in Quantico today is that there is no one in Trump’s White House or among the top civilian command at the Pentagon or for that matter in the entire Republican Party who thinks there was anything wrong with anything said by either Hegseth or Trump. But generals and admirals endured George Bush and the lies he told that forced them into a war they knew was bogus. They endured his absurd “mission accomplished” moment when everyone in the military knew that precisely nothing had been “accomplished” a few months into the war in Iraq. They knew from reading history that this country and its military had been forced into a war in Vietnam on the basis of another ocean of lies.

In the end, the generals and admirals know that presidents come and go, but their job remains the same. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen and Marines under their command need them to do their jobs in spite of the madness at the top. Their loyalty is to the Constitution, not to President Donald Trump and Secretary of Whatever the Hell He Thinks He Is Pete Hegseth.

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God doesn’t see it like that.

Instead of taking pride in ourselves, God calls us to take pride in Him. Instead of boasting about our own accomplishments, God tells us to boast about our weaknesses and failures.

But, why? Why would we do that? Isn’t that the exact opposite of what you want? Doesn’t that defeat the whole point of boasting?

No, actually. If anything, it leads to an even better reason as to why we should be boasting in the first place.

When we boast about, or focus on, our weaknesses, it highlights our sinfulness and our need for a savior. We cannot possibly achieve union with God by our own, sinful efforts, which is why Jesus had to step on the scene. Because of what Jesus on the cross, we can have a relationship with the Father, all through His amazing grace and love.

It’s this knowledge, the knowledge of the Gospel, that acts as the conduit through which God chooses to work His purposes in this world. It’s through hearing the message of the Gospel that others are empowered by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. It’s through the Gospel that you and me become filled with the presence of God Himself.

So, by focusing on our weaknesses, we actually point to our main source of strength, God Himself. By this process, we are first weak, then we are strong.

This is also foreshadows the divine transformation we will undergo when Jesus returns.

Right now, we inhabit sinful bodies of the flesh. As we inhabit the flesh, we will naturally desire the things of the flesh, things that draw us away from God. But when Jesus returns (which could be any day now, so get ready) we will be made sinless as He is. First we are weak, but then we will be made strong.

Worldly boasting brings others attention back to yourself, biblical boasting brings attention back to God, the creator of all there is, and the source of our strength. It reminds us that we are filed with His very presence, and helps us look forward to His eventual return.

And when you think about it, isn’t it more logical to take pride in being empowered by the living God of the universe over what we have done? Doesn’t it make more sense to find security in the fact we are endlessly loved and cherished by the Creator of all existence? I think so.

This is what it means to boast in the Lord. Not arrogance, and definitely not self pity, but a glorious rejoicing in who God is, and in His endless love for us; how He chooses to love us despite our shortcomings, and is able to work through our failures for His glory and our benefit. After all, all things work together for the good of those who love Him.