An Essay on Love and the Bearded One

Bradford SmithNovember 2026  ·  If Only One

They wouldn’t stop talking about the Bearded One.

I was preparing to attend the Army’s Survival-Escape-Resistance-Evasion (SERE-C) school at Bragg, a school that lovingly (tongue firmly in cheek) seeks to prepare attendees to evade capture by enemy forces, survive if captured, and ultimately, even escape. And here, I’d have to face the Bearded One, a man of mythical proportions, supposedly the fiercest man alive. They wouldn’t stop talking about him! At some point, I began to doubt, thinking this was just a story the Warrant Officers made up to try and scare the captains until… I went to SERE.

SERE culminates in an exercise whereby you live off the land for a few days—not an easy thing; I lost 29 pounds during the last week—and are subsequently captured and placed in a mock POW camp where you are not exactly treated too kindly.

Just prior to the exercise, we were gathered in a room when the door exploded inward and in strode this giant of a man like the wrath of God. He was huge and fearsome, with a voice like thunder and eyes like a flaming fire. Here he was at last, the Bearded One! We shrank into our seats and then popped to attention, and for about an hour, he berated us and chastised us about… our motivations, what it is that drives us.

What Moves Us?

You can motivate soldiers in a few different ways.

You can punish them, coerce them. Do this or else. Think the Soviet Union shooting its own soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad.

You can reward them, entice them, offer them glory. Napoleon famously claimed that if you gave him an unlimited supply of ribbons, he would conquer the world, which he nearly did.

Islamic armies cracked the code by offering pillage (sexual and otherwise) to their fighters and the promise of eternal sexual delights in heaven for those killed on the battlefield.

These are effective, but they will only compel a soldier so far. At some point, they will prove ineffective. How on earth could armies motivate soldiers to do something as unreasonable as giving up their lives? This has been the riddle armies have been seeking to solve since it all began.

The Bearded One delivered an unexpected message. I still recall the ferocity of his exhortation as he raged at us, “You’ve got to love your brother! Love is the only thing that will carry you through when things get hard, when things seem impossible!” I still recall the fire in his eyes as this giant-of-a-man admonished us to love. What an improbable message this was!

He knew something I had yet to learn.

Love is the most powerful motivator in the world.

Take an army unit whereby the commander loves his soldiers—and how does he love them? For starters, he is with them. Let me say that again: he is with them. Wherever they are, he is there, and most of all, he is with them where and when they are suffering the most.

Soldiers will love a commander who loves them in this way, and they will love one another, and there is nothing they won't do or accomplish or give when loved in such a manner as this.

What would possess the Apostle Paul to suffer willingly as he did? What would compel Stephen to stand and preach the Gospel to his death?

The Love of the Father

I’ve been dwelling on the love of God lately.

John writes, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” (1 John 3:1) See it. Behold it! The great love of the Father.

How much does God love His people?

It pleased Him to crush the Son on their behalf. Nothing could ever separate us from this love, the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. Not one thing. Not even ourselves.

Maybe you say, “I’m lukewarm.”

“He loves you.”

“I’ve sinned greatly.”

“He delights in you.”

“I’m filled with doubt and discouragement.”

“He rejoices over you.”

“I’m apathetic and weary.”

“He loves you… and there’s not one thing you can do about it.”

This is the great love of Jesus for His people, but there’s more. There’s always more with Jesus. The love of Jesus always meets us where we are. As such, when you are at your lowest, at your most wretched, at your most miserable, this is when Jesus loves you the most! Scandalous! Glorious, the unfathomable love of God.

Do you know it? In Christ Jesus, do you know the love of the Father?

How did the Bearded One know about such love?

Later, he confided in us that he was a Sunday School teacher and a deacon in his church. This fiercest man, the most intimidating man I’ve encountered to date—he knew the love of the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.