When I was young I used to think that to be brave you had to take action…
and to have a dream in life, you had to have courage…
but I realize, that the only thing you have to have courage for….is standing still.
I long to find wonder in the simple things...
a rare gift is to know your gift in the world...
to live in the moment like a child..
that is a rare gift in a man.
I wish I could be like that…to have the courage of a child and to stand still in the moment!
The movie 300 tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Persians, under the rule of King Xerxes, have already taken over some of the Hellenic city-states. Xerxes stands at the Hot Gates and threatens Sparta and Athens. King Leonidas of Sparta is left with two options: he will either have to sacrifice himself for the well-being of Sparta or watch his kingdom burn to the ground. Choosing the former, Leonidas forms an army of 300 Spartan warriors to block the narrow passage of Thermopylae where Xerxes intends to reach Hellas.
The 300 Spartans are accompanied by about 700 Thespians who protect the flanks of the passage, and combined, the forces manage to slay tens of thousands of Persians and prevent their entry into Hellas for several days. However, Ephialtes, a reject of the Spartan Army gets his revenge by showing Xerxes a secret goat passage up the flanks of the passage. The story depicts the epic last stand of the finest Spartan soldiers who are aware of their fate, but motivated by "honor and glory", and see the battle as their duty to protect the rest of Greece for as long as possible.
Isn't the Christian life a bit like that? Life comes at us in waves of struggles just like Xerxes army. Then we have moments with God where we feel He reaches into our life and touches us. Then the enemy moves in to spin his lies that our life is hopeless and insignificant. He moves in and out of the events each day looking for a break in our faith or an opening to devour us.
King Leonidas knew the end of his story. He knew that by standing firm and defending his ground, his kingdom, he would sacrifice not only his life but the lives of the 300 men that locked shields with him. That is what makes the 300 story so epic. Men willing to lay down their lives so others might live. The best part of our story is we know the ending. We know Christ, our general and King, will return like Gandalf in Lord of the Rings on a white horse and claim his ground forever. His creation will be restored and He will make all things new. The amazing thing is we are not asked to die for Him. Rather we are asked to die to ourselves and live for Him.
So when the armies of doubt and uncertainty come at you like relentless waves, ("For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of the evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12), stand firm. Your faith is your shield. "...take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Ephesians 6:16
Remember back to school and the mathematical rule of “If A then B”?
We live most of our lives being frustrated with God. Come on really...admit it. Well I do. Usually I live out my life something like this...If I "A" act or perform a certain way then I expect God to then "B” behave in response. It doesn't work, does it? We find ourselves trying different diets of behaviors and performances only to be frustrated with the lack of outcome. We work so hard and deny ourselves of what we want to do and then look for God to show up and do something to reward our efforts. We basically test God. Where is that in the scriptures?! Why don't we just do the right thing for the sake of Christ?
Look at one of the roughest disciples that walked in the dust of Jesus. Look at Peter. This guy was one tough and rough handed fisherman. He was certainly not the most humble was he. He was quick to cut off an ear with a sword to defend his rabbi and friend. He was quick to push away the children looking to be blessed by Jesus, he was the first to jump out of the boat and walk on water, and he was the first to tell Jesus that he would never deny Him. Mind you he did most of these things in front of his fellow disciples. Humility and selflessness were not his strengths in the beginning. He was rough and course like sea salt.
Now I don't just mean to point out Peters faults and character flaws. He was an excellent student and disciple of Jesus. You see in those days to be picked by a rabbi was a huge honor and responsibility. Kids worked very hard to memorize the entire Torah and to make the cut. To be told, "follow me" by their rabbi meant that the rabbi believed that they had what it took. It meant that the rabbi believed the student could become a disciple of his "yoke" or theology and to learn to do what he did. It meant that many others were not picked and sent home with a blessing by the rabbi to work in the family business. That is where we find Peter’s story beginning in the gospel. Peter was working with this father in the fishing business. We read on to find Jesus walking up to him on the beach and simply calls out to Peter to "follow him". Strange to us, if you really think about it. But to a Jewish young adult, it was a big deal. It meant that Jesus believed in him enough to call him out and into His service.
As I read through the gospels I see Peter making a lot of the same mistakes as many of us. He was living his life trying to stand out to Jesus and be noticed. He acted out first and then thought about it. He longed for validation and to be set apart. Don't we all. Come on seriously, don't we try to act correctly to get something in return? We act right to get God to behave right. And when God doesn't act right we get frustrated and mad. That is usually when the enemy moves in for the kill. Have you ever had a conversation with God that went something like this, "I don't understand God, I have tithed, served my family, given my time at church, poured my life into the kids, and loved my wife fairly well...why aren't you blessing me?" Well, maybe I am the only one.
Here is what I am thinking. What if we turn the “If A then B” rule around? What if we said “Because of B then A”? Let me explain. What if we viewed life from a different fractal? What if I looked at it like this: God has behaved, so I am compelled to act? You see we know that God has behaved or acted for us already. He laid His life down for us. He battled his way to the earth He created, to be born in a body He designed, to live among a people He loved, to pay a ransom that we incurred and a debt we could not pay. He behaved on our behalf so that we could be like Him and love like Him. Peter understood this too.
As I read on in the gospel I see a rough fisherman become a humble, compassionate, risk taking, rock. Peter's course of nature is refined into what Jesus called the salt of the earth. His story was one of a broken man that was restored by Christ and because of that he was compelled to share with the world what he experienced. He shared the most powerful thing he had, his faith and story. Because he learned the hard way about the Life Jesus gave him he was moved without restraint to proclaim what God had done in his life.
So now I’m looking at the fact that I have been living my life backwards. What would my life look like if I lived with a reckless compulsion to share Life with others because Christ behaved first. To put it another way...I want to live my life because of Christ.
Peter was not the exception…he was an example.
“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same sort of suffering.” 1 Peter 5:8-9
The scriptures tell us over and over that we live in a world that is thwart with warfare. That war is being fought for and over our hearts.
There is a great line in the movie Constantine where the detective John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is explaining to Angela that there is more going on than meets the eye regarding the death of her sister. Angela responds to this by saying "Well, this has been real educational, but, I don't believe in the devil." John then makes one of the most powerful statements in the movie, "You should. He believes in you."
Whether we like it or not we are born into a world that is at war. A war between Heaven and hell. And we are right in the middle of it.
Do you live your life as if you are?
Unanswered questions
The other evening I was reading a book by Ken Gire titled Life as We Would Want It…Life as We Are Given It. A particular quote in the book stood out to me.
“A German poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote to a young man in 1903:
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart…try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Letters to a young poet, trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Vintage, 1986)”
As I thought about the quote I realized that God never asked us to live our life with confidence and certainty. He wants us to live it with a reckless faith. A faith that stretches us in the moments of doubt and weariness. How often do we find ourselves in the middle of our life exactly where we want to be? Not often enough for my liking. Life is full of questions and many of them go unanswered. Mostly because we don’t stop to ask the important ones of God, nor stop to hear His answers.
Life gives us countless opportunities that test our resolve and constitution. What God offers us in these times is a strength that surpasses understanding and explanation…His strength. A strength that we can rest in if we will yield our desire for control of our lives. How beautiful it would be to rest in that place forever. Living out questions with reckless faith. It leaves us wide open for God to show up and leave us speechless with His finger print on our life.
Rainer understood that life was worth living well and living questions.
There is a beautiful movie called August Rush which I watched the other night. The story about a ten year orphan old boy who is a musical prodigy that is looking for his parents. He is blessed with a gift of music. There is a scene in the movie where someone asks him if he could be anything in the world what would he want to be. His response floored me. With all the innocence of a young child he makes the most profound statement. He says, “To be found!” Don’t we all want to be found in life, to be truly known for how we are?
