Peter Richardson Part 2 “Out Of Darkness into Light”

In the second part of the interview, Canadian Armed Forces member Peter Richardson shares how he transitioned from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light and sustains his faith as a soldier attending Oromocto Baptist Church. He keeps Bibles with him everywhere—including in a pistol case in his car—engages daily with Scripture, and prays the Psalms to stay close to Christ, viewing the Word as his spiritual weapon. Raised in a Christian home with believing parents and brother, he notes relational friction with non-believing family members who preferred his former self, responding by authentically living out his faith, praying for them daily, and trusting God as the Good Shepherd. Military life’s uncertainties have taught him reliance on divine provision—often at the last moment, like the parting of the Red Sea—while workplace challenges include pervasive profanity, culture shifts, and pressure to affirm unbiblical lifestyles such as LGBTQ ideologies; he counters these by respecting all people as image-bearers of God, refusing to compromise truth, and working “heartily as for the Lord” as both employee and leader who also tends to others spiritually. His desk Bible opens faith conversations, where he advises listening empathetically twice as much as speaking, and he maintains an adaptable early-morning devotional routine of prayer and Scripture reading in a distraction-free space (often with a physical Bible in airplane mode) to prioritize God before the day’s demands take over, remaining flexible even on deployments to avoid mechanical ritual.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Are you currently part of a church family?

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm going to uh Oromcto Baptist Church. And uh Perry. That's right. Perry Hanley. Hey, Perry. I love it there. I'm involved in a Bible study once a week, and let's let's just say I'm I'm very well looked after there. It's it's a place of love.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Good. And how do you keep close to Christ?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Uh yeah. So I've adopted the attitude that I got my start in the army, and when you're a soldier, your weapon is your lifeline. But as a Christian, your weapon is the word of God. So I took I took a case, a zippered case that's usually for a pistol, and I put a Bible in it. Oh, that's right. And I just carry it with me everywhere I go. And I have a stair that I keep in the trunk of my car. And so every Sunday or everywhere I everywhere I go, I've got I've got a Bible in the trunk of my car, I've got a Bible in several rooms in the house. And personally, I I engage with the word whenever I can. And not not everyone's the same, but I find that I can focus more on the Lord through the word. Other people might not be the same. It's always good to be in the word, but what grants me focus and keeps me less distracted is by by going through the words on the page. And my my own praises feel insufficient, but God's given us the psalms, and I can borrow words from someone more inspired than myself, and and I pray the Psalms. Yeah, so I was raised in a Christian household. So my mom and dad know Christ, and they they were obviously very pleased when I returned to the family of God. And my brother is a believer too, and he's he's recently married another believer. So there's there's a few in my family who are believers. My mother-in-law is a believer too. There's I would say there's just as many in in my family who are not believers. And we usually get along pretty well, but it has it has led to some friction in the past, especially, especially with some people close to me. They say that I'm a different person now. And some of them liked the old me better. And sometimes it it brings to mind, you know, a passage from from the gospels that said, you know, I come not to bring peace, but a sword, you know. And that the battle lines are frequently drawn down the middle of a family, you know, daughters against mothers-in-law. And it's it's an unfortunate reality of the world we're in.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

It's interesting because I I hearken back to what you said about coming from defecting from the kingdom of darkness over to the kingdom of light. And now you see what it's like on the other side, right? And there's still people that are left behind back there, and they're wondering, you know, what happened? Where did this guy go, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah. The kingdom of darkness, when you're in it, you don't know you're in it. If you if you got some inkling you were in it, most people would try to leave. And the the the enemy tries to make it either as comfortable or as possible, or to to slander the kingdom of light. So, I mean, there there are some people that I know that are very resistant to the gospel because they say they have things like church hurt, or you know, they've they've seen some Christians in public that behave in a way they find personally reprehensible. I I I say that you know, some some people like we're all called to be imitators of Christ. That's that's a high bar. Perfection is the highest of bars, and it is, isn't it? Yeah, just because someone uh plays a piece of music badly doesn't necessarily mean you blame Beethoven for some amateur attempt at playing at some point.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

That's a good point. That's a that's a well well said. How do you and your family stay close to Christ?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Like so my my family is is a spiritual battleground, so I I do my best to stay close to Christ and I do my best to uh to live out my faith, and sometimes that's all I can do. Sometimes that's all I can do. I can't I can't hit my family with the hard sell all the time. No, I and and you know, had someone consistently approached me about it when when I was a non-believer, if if I had known my friend was praying for me, I would have said, thank you, I'm flattered. Like I can tell, I can tell you can you care about me, but you you can you can spend your effort on someone else. Like please, please stop. Just you know, give it to someone who who who will give you the time of the day, or give it to someone who deserves it, you know. And so I think I have to trust the good shepherd to bring his sheep home. So the best thing I can do to keep my family close to Christ is live out my faith, pray for them daily, and trust in the Lord, uh to to be the good shepherd and and to bring them all home.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Well said. What experiences have you and your family faced where you've seen God act in your lives?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So uh when you're in the military, you face a lot of uncertainty, especially in the regular force, right? So do I know where I'll be living a year or two from now? No. Do I do I know what circumstances will be like next year? No. We all deal with uncertainty, but in the military, that is that is taken to the nth degree, because you're not actually in charge of your life. In a way, it's it's it's forcing people to live by faith. And I I tell anyone who will listen, like, the Lord is my career manager, really. At the end of the day, I have a terrestrial career career manager, but at the end of the day, I don't know where I'm going. And I have to I have to place myself in God's care. And sometimes that's scary. But much, much like when the Israelites had their escape cut off at the Great Sea, and they could see the Egyptians advancing on them, God came through for them, seemingly, seemingly at the last moment. So sometimes there have been situations where it feels like, in a certain sense, you have your foot caught in the railroad tracks and you hear a train coming. Okay. And uh you yeah, yeah. So we we as believers are commanded not to fear. And so uh God has been very patient with me, especially, and God protects us and sustains us, and I think He's He's very, very patiently and very gradually he's been teaching me to live by faith and not to trust in my own plans. I can make plans, but I find myself saying, Lord, I have no idea what's about to happen. I have no idea what's coming next because I'm I'm wrong so often. Like I make reasonable assumptions, I make inferences, but life can be just so strange that I'm still I'm still amazed by the things that happen. It's it if you'll allow it, I my daughter's five. We watch Spongebob SquarePants, and there's there's there's an episode of SpongeBob where Squidward is mocking them, is mocking Spongebob and Patrick because he says, Do you think the answers to your problems will just fall out of the sky? And then there's there's a plane flying above them and says picnic supplies incorporated, and they say, Ah, we're dropping out of the sky, says the pilot. We got to drop the load. So they they jettison their cargo and it's a picnic set, and a whole picnic basket together with a tent and a campfire drops in front of them and just sort of surrounds them. Yeah, right? That's that's the life of faith. That's that's where you're you're you you feel like you feel like nothing's happening until God comes through powerfully, powerfully, in a way you never expected. And I had been living the other way so long that it it was it was new to me, and it's still new to me. I'm still processing the events of the past three years in my life. And every God not only pr provides for us, but he gives spiritual comfort as well and counsel. When I'm at my lowest level, but uh he he does it in such a way that I don't expect it. God's not a vending machine, you know, no uh or a genie in a lamp, or an ATM or that's right, it's not transactional. The relationship is not transactional, it's it's one where where God God values two things, trust and obedience. Trust don't obey, like the hymn. So yeah, that the the experiences of being posted and not having a place to live and running out of time before the posting and facing down the probability of IR or being essentially house poor or not having a place to live or having our family split up, all these terrible outcomes. At the last minute, the clouds part and the solution is there. It's like the party of the Red Sea. Precisely, precisely.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Right on. Let's talk about work. And were there, you know, are there any tensions or challenges at in being a Christian in the military?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah, yeah, I would say, I would say there's a couple. So the military's experiencing culture change from above. It's it's been mandated through policy. And some of that culture change is good, and some of it's not so good. In the old army, as they would say, drinking culture was very strong. There was a lot of pressure to to drink and to act and behave in a certain way. Uh down to down to the the language that's employed at a field unit or a maintenance unit or a headquarters. The name of Christ is abused day in and day out in every workplace I have ever been at. And it is a little jarring. And you know, I try not to make a big deal out of it, but I I do flinch every single time. And even aside from the drinking culture going away, the the the other half of the policy change is the political authorities, the have have basically imposed worldly values on on the government. So there is pressure from from official sources to do things that will compromise your faith. So that that could be acknowledging or celebrating things that we know not to be true. That that is that is ever present. And it's it's coming up not only for me, but some other believers I know in the military, there is there is pressure to compromise on the nature of God's order for creation, on on truth. And frankly, there is pressure to affirm and celebrate LGBTQ lifestyles. Now that that being said, all human beings are made in the image of God and worthy of respect and love. And we are to we are to act in the best interest of every human being on the earth. They are our neighbors. And again, Lewis puts into plain language so so eloquently what I struggled with for a long time to formulate. He says, words to the effect, every human being is is one of our fellow immortals. And our actions here on earth have a bearing on their eternal destiny. Some things, some things we can say or do can drive them away from God. Or perhaps if we're if we're walking with the Spirit and we're we're open to the Spirit's promptings, you know, maybe the things we say can draw them closer to God. So there's a fine line a believer has to walk. Where it's it's it's not necessarily our job to to point out everything that's wrong. I don't make it my business to point out everything that's wrong with other people's lifestyles. I'm not a busybody. I I don't mention it. I I never give anyone a hard time about it. What I'm what I'm referring to is there's sometimes there are instances where push comes to shove where members are ordered to participate in events affirming a unbig unbiblical lifestyle, right? Okay, right. So that that that puts puts a believer in a very tough spot because it can it can it can bring accusations of of bigotry that I think are not warranted. And ours is a culture of offense. And if you say the wrong thing at work, or even if you refuse to affirm the uh political dogma of the day, you run the risk of losing your job and your career. Right.

unknown 15:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

So I would say the two challenges of the military are really one challenge. The the primary challenges of being a Christian in the military are are not being corrupted by the world.

unknown 15:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

You know, the the book of James says true religion is to care for widows and orphans and to not let the world corrupt you. You know. So that that that's what I've observed so far as the challenges of being a believer in the military.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Have you ever had anybody come up to you who who who was not a Christian and ask you about God or Jesus or what you believe in?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Yes. And uh that that's usually happened because I keep I keep a Bible on my desk. I keep Bibles everywhere. I keep one in the trunk of my car and at my desk at work, I I have a Bible. And occasionally people do pass comment on it, and it's usually the it's it's the gateway to some wonderful conversations about the most important topic in the world, right? It's only it's only you know of eternal import, right? So it opens it opens doors in conversations where where people will say, Oh, I was raised Catholic, or I don't understand what it's all about. And I think when when a believer in or out of the military is faced with that situation, my my advice is to listen twice as much as you speak. It's it's to listen to that person and to comprehend what they're saying, but not only what they're saying, but but what their meaning is. Like some people who who raise objections to Christianity and the Bible, their objections are not coming from a place of genuine skepticism, their objections are coming from a place of pain. And before I was a Christian, I did not, I wasn't on the hook to care about people's feelings nearly so much. You know, it's it's feelings do matter, and people are often led by their feelings. And so it's important to understand the words people are saying to you, but also to see, to see the meaning behind it. What's this person really asking? What do they really want? And it's it's once again an exercise in love, in acting in that person's best interest and hearing them out. So to anyone who who is is in the in the armed forces and someone strikes up a conversation like that, just be prepared to give an answer for the hope you have in Jesus, but also be just as prepared to listen and to confirm your understanding. You can you can paraphrase and reiterate it back to them and see if you you actually understood what they were trying to say. Okay. And if you if you don't know something, just just cop to that to say, I actually don't know. Can you tell me a little more about that?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah. Can you tell me a little more about that? Yeah. How did being a Christian in the calf help with your work life?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Or do or does it or does it help with your work life? So being being a Christian in the calf is complicated. So first the the the calf is the perfection of arms. Most occupations in the calf have have some sort of lethal nexus to them, potentially. And so wars from a Christian perspective are even more devastating in a spiritual sense. They're they're pretty awful. The business of killing is not a clean one, and it definitely changed my attitude towards towards military conflict more generally. I see it as an even greater tragedy now. And that that that it actually increased my potential for moral injury, you know. The the the other the other factors at play are uh Christians, Christians are obligated to be good employees, no matter where you are. Work heartily for men as for the Lord. That's Colossians. By the same token, Christians are called upon to be good bosses, also Colossians. So when you're a believer in the calf, Jesus wants you to give it your all and to be loyal to your master and to to support your chain of command. And for those in the chain of command that are beneath you, it's it's your obligation to to love them and to look after them in every sense of it. Physically, you're you're supposed to enable and facilitate their their well-being and the completion of the mission, but also I I believe that the people around us, we we have to look after them spiritually. In my opinion, that's not strictly the purview of a chaplain. We're a priesthood of believers. And yeah, so so it's it's excellent motivation. So anytime I find myself saying not too motivated today, you can you can remind yourself that you're working for Jesus, you know. And it happens, yeah. To be a a soldier who is a Christian or a Christian who is a soldier, it's got extra challenges with it, but it is to an extent, it is a good fit. It is a good fit as as believers, we're we're to accept and thrive in periods of deprivation and suffering. And it's so much, it's so much better going through those hard times, knowing that the creator of the universe knows your name, cares about you, and has promised to be present with you moment by moment, that every time you pray out loud or in your head, heaven hears you, and that that the seas will part if necessary. The great sea will part as required, you know. So knowing going. Into a dangerous situation like a war is is so much better knowing that no matter what happens, you are in the Lord's hands.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Okay. Good. How did you or how do you stay close to the to the Lord when you're when you're on exercises or deployments?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

So when I'm when I'm away, I I do my best to take a physical Bible with me. If that's not possible, there are Bible applications. And I have a daily devotional routine that I've established, but because of the needs of the service or or just the realities of the circumstances of being somewhere else, you often have to shorten it. And it's it's like working out. Is it preferable to have a shorter workout and maybe accomplish a bit less, or have no workout at all? So it's better, it's better if you can't set an aside half an hour for the Lord that day, even if you deliberately set aside five minutes after you wake up, before you shave, something like that. Right. That is is to be flexible to modify your routine, but to maintain some sort of routine while you're away and keep yourself grounded as possible through through prayer and the word. And you know, when when you're away, you're even you're even more reliant on God's presence and provision. And just just keep praying. Remember your prayers. A prayer journal is very valuable. When I was a child, when I was a child, I sometimes got letters from distant relatives. And if I if it had been a while since I've gotten a letter, I would say, Mom, how come I don't get letters anymore? And she said, Well, do you write any? No. Oh do you write any letters? Okay. So initiate prayer with God through the spirit often. If it's messy, if it's not perfect, uh don't worry about it. Just do it. God is always happy to hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

What let's let's bring it to where we to where you are now, like your home. What would what would you be what would be your routine right now for staying close to the Lord? Like do you get up in the morning and you you pray, you read your Bible, etc. Have a coffee?

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yeah, so just for me personally, I have to do it early in the morning. And the reason for that is because I'm I'm busy throughout the day. I have a lot of obligations. And it's it's a lot like PT. So you have to you have to put your devotions first in the day, I find, because the day will just, it's like it fees physically seizes you. So many things will be demanding your attention throughout the day, demanding it. They're not taking no for an answer. So if you put God first, it has a much higher chance of getting done. And it will orient you and sit situate you the right way to go into what's probably a very difficult day. Like a lot of days are difficult, right? You might as well start them off right, and that's and that's with that's with prayer. It doesn't have to be exactly the same all the time. That's that's the other thing, is I I get up early to read and pray alone, but it doesn't always look exactly the same. I found that when I overcommitted to a routine and I was just trying to keep it up as long as I could, it tended to become mechanical. It became very rote and it lost the you know, it lost the sense of intimacy and connection after a while. It as soon as it starts to feel routine and like a chore, you should probably change something small about it. So if I've been praying the Psalms every day, like I might switch to a different section of the Bible. Or if you can try doing things in a different order, just do something, just just like working out. You you tend to kind of plateau if you keep things the same. And if you're not careful, it can just turn into plain, empty ritual. And that's not something I want. The the other thing I say is if if you do miss a day, don't don't feel too badly about it. Like it can when you're committed to a routine, I I personally fall into patterns of what some people call religious OCD very easily, and I constantly have to stay on guard for that. So what a typical morning might look like is waking up before anyone else in the house, and I would get ready for work, and sometimes I would just go into the office because no one is there in the office. If you you must have a time and a place where you are unavailable, you've got to carve out this time and you've got to make it sacred, right? Because otherwise, you'll get a knock on the door. Hey, I know it's 5 30, but I demand your attention now. You know, these these things have a way of happening. So that's that's following the example of Jesus. Jesus retreated to remote places to to go and talk to his father. The the the best way to to have devotional time is a place free of distraction. And so in that vein, I've all I've also found that I would have to put my phone into airplane mode because of the nature of what a smartphone is. It's a flashy screen, and I found myself unconsciously swiping, scrolling, checking the news, stuff like that. And so even if you're using a Bible app, there's gonna be that constant temptation, not not even a temptation, just unconsciously flipping through my apps. Oh, what's the weather gonna be like today? Oh, okay. Very familiar with that, yes. Airplane, airplane mode is is a halfway compromise if you have to use a digital application. But that's why a physical Bible is really good to have. Physical Bible forces you to concentrate more, and it's it's a useful prop for starting conversations in the office, to be honest. I just I just leave it out there. It's like you're you're claiming territory, you know. Right. That's oh that's great.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Uh and you're not the only one that I've heard that from to P it I've had other interviews where people have keep kept their Bibles out on their desks, and that that really really opens the door. That's what I've been hearing.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yeah, and and I find sometimes scripture can be very timely in providing us advice and assistance. The more the more you're in scripture and the more you're familiar with it, the easier uh the easier you're gonna find guidance and just the right verse for just the right time.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Well, Peter Richardson, I want to thank you for your time. It's been a great interview. Really enjoyed it. We hope you have enjoyed this episode of DP1. Also, if you are hoping to connect with other military Christians in your area, consider joining the Military Christian Fellowship of Canada, which you can connect with online at mcfanada.ca.