Looking Backward

As a former cadet at North Georgia College, I am on the school's Foundation mailing list. Last night I received their latest mailing. In it was an article that caught my eye, "Vietnam Vets Remember NGC of The Sixties." Since I attended the school in 1969, I was interested to find out if I knew anyone in the article. Of course, I didn't recognize the two individuals as they both graduated before I arrived. However, their stories were extremely interesting, especially that of Ralph Colley.

Ralph Colley was a 1966 graduate of North Georgia College. Speaking about his Viet Nam War experience, he called it “8 very exciting months in Viet Nam and one really bad afternoon.” Near Cu Chi (1967), Ralph Colley, then a 1st Lt. and platoon leader in a rifle company of the 101st Airborne Divison, came in contact with a land mine, and lost his left arm and both legs in the ensuing explosion. Colley said that at the time, “My spiritual dimension helped, of course.” In the article he also said:

“My war period was four decades ago. Even with all I’ve done since, that was the most exciting, interesting, demanding, challenging period of my life, a time lived more fully and with greater intensity than any other. Despite all the negatives – and I will say I wouldn’t ever want to do it again – I got immense satisfaction from showing myself I could be tested and found capable. North Georgia was a huge part of that.”


I was inspired by the way he was looking backward with no regret and reflecting on how those experiences "tested" him and he determined he was "found capable." Oh that we might all look back with "immense satisfaction" knowing that it has prepared us well for the present and the future.

Paul wrote Timothy saying, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV)

Can you look backward on life with no regrets? Facing our hardest trials and testings of life become our greatest moments. They prove us.