The Invisible War

Crouched down in the dirt and tall grass, your body shakes with the shock of battle. Your breathing is heavy... your eyes weak and sad. You grasp your weapon tightly in your hand. You check your six: all clear. Your vision is limited from the stifling helmet, but you can see an outcropping just beyond the dense trees. Illuminated by the setting sun, the sweat on your face glistens, mixed with dirt and grease and blood, an indescribable filth cakes your entire body. Before you give your mind a chance to consider the potential consequences, you leap into a sprint, running so hard your muscles begin to burn. Just a few more feet. You leap over a tree stump and duck your head as bullets rain from an unknown direction. You reach the earth once more with a thud, never slowing, never stopping. You spot a foxhole occupied by an unknown comrade. The weight of the world lightens a little. With a small dive, you eat a mouthful of safe, covered dirt, and peace of mind is achieved, at least for a while. You turn to your friend and sputter out a request to follow you. He doesn't move, staring at you with hesitant eyes. No. He won't go with you. The enemy is too great, he says. There's no point in resisting, he says. Your stomach drops to your feet. Not another one. And to think that you can't take him with you. No matter how hard you try, it has to be his choice. You tell him he's doomed to destruction, that he's on the losing side. You tell him not to give up hope, but to fight hard until the end, which will justify all the pain. He won't listen though. He's too distracted by what's around him. By the here and now. He's too blinded to see the reward that waits for him if he just

keeps

pressing

on.

I hope, as a Christian, you feel like this. No, it doesn't make me happy you feel like this. I don't feel happy you feel discouraged or pained. But you should. And if you do, you're on the right track. Truth be told, we're behind enemy lines. Satan has power. Let's face it. And we're on his turf. His battlefield. His pit of sin and lust and destruction. This is his big chocolate-covered bomb. His grand deception. His master plan. And I gotta hand it to him, finding pleasure in earthly things is easy nowadays.

But what if we didn't. What if we shoved his sinful offers right back in his ugly face. What if we rebelled against the customs of this world and ran. Ran until our muscles burned. Ran for the goal, grabbing as many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as we could. What if, amidst the storm of bullets and arrows and pain, we pressed on, knowing that the end would justify it all. What if we put our faith in the unseen. In the truth. What if we ALL did that. What if we could somehow turn Satan's own field against him. What if we took this beautiful earth that our Lord created BACK.

Sounds like a remarkably effective battle strategy to me.

So let's do it.

Matthew 7

I can't tell you how many times I've read these words:

"Any why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye?"
Matthew 7:3 & 4 (NLV)

When I read it today, I actually stopped to think about it for more than a few seconds (what a novel idear!!).

The woodwork in this analogy obviously represents sin. The log, being highly destructive, life-ruining sin, and the speck representing daily sin, stuff that we may think goes unnoticed.

Truth is, we all have some wood in our eye. Whether it be a redwood tree or a speck of sawdust, all sin and fall short of the glory of God. No one in this world is free from sin, every single person, no matter how perfect they strive to be, still sins.

So what's Jesus saying here? Well, the emphasis in this case is on what He's not saying.

Who can judge?

Who is perfect enough to judge the next guy on all his sins and faults?

No one. Not you, not me. Jesus.

Jesus is the only one who doesn't have that mess in his eyes. He's the only one who can see clearly enough beyond the smokescreen of this world to judge.

So the next time you judge, think to yourself, "Am I free from sin? Don't I have my fallacies and weaknesses as well?"

It's so great when you think about it. He's the perfect judge. He's the perfect mapmaker for our lives.

I'm glad we didn't leave that job up to a human.