What's Your WIDWID?

Mission. This word gets batted around in veteran circles from day one. In most cases, a mission is something you’re given. A purpose to live up to, a job to perform, or a task to complete. Mission. Life is easy with a mission, even if the assignment is hard. Having a purpose makes the minutes and hours fly by. When your hands are busy, your mind is not. The problems arise when you lose sight of that mission or are removed from it.

Many veterans struggle after they no longer have a clearly defined purpose. I floundered for years attempting to find a new direction after my deployment. Iraq was an easy mission. Don’t die, don’t let your buddies die. If either happens, well, it’s outside of your control, and the mission moves on. Now, the mission must be created internally. It’s no longer given, and it’s not as black-and-white as before.

I got good at starting things after I got out of the military. I spent time as a biology student, then a ministry student working in a family business, teaching, preaching, writing, filming, and shooting photos. My mission now seems to be fluid, and that’s okay. Sometimes we gather the pieces of our former selves to cobble together our new purpose.

For a season, I traveled with my father-in-law and assisted his church programs across the country. He has been traveling as a Christian comedian and speaker for over thirty years now. His primary gig is a musical comedy showcase where he performs as a character called “Harvey Garvey Tater.” His act is somewhere between Hee Haw, Jerry Clower, and a sprinkling of Billy Graham. It was an interesting period in my life as I watched him play this character night after night.

I picked up an idiom he’d use while performing at these churches. Sometimes in character and sometimes as himself, my father-in-law would ask the audience if they knew their “WIDWID.” Then he further explained that it was an acronym—my military ears perked up—that means “Why I Do What I Do—WIDWID.” The intent was for the audience to realize that they’re here for a defined purpose. It helped to show them that they need to figure out why they do what they do. If you don’t know why you’re doing the things you’re doing, you’re likely to get lost along the way.

Whether it’s a personal mission or a WIDWID, I often think of my purpose and recalibrate the steps I’m taking to stay faithful to that end. Sometimes the mission is to make it to the end of the week and hammer out one of these articles. The needle moves forward slightly, and I’ve stayed true to what I set out to do. I know why I’m doing what I’m doing, even if I fail at it.

Some weeks, I take bigger swings. It’s always the same mission. Baby steps are still moving forward. Setbacks are just opportunities to grow and readjust my direction. If you have ever completed a land navigation course, you know that sometimes your pace gets off, and you end up in a swamp. It never seems like the path is straight OR easy, but persistence pays off. What’s your WIDWID?