Essence of a Warrior

When I first saw the movie Saving Private Ryan I was shocked.  I was moved, I was proud and I was so very thankful.  Through that movie I discovered how inglorious war really is because up ‘til that point, no other film had laid out all the small ironies that place the outcome of life or death on such a razors edge.   Soldiers (and civilians) died in that war having missed their chance of surviving by inches, seconds, the smallest mistakes and most of the time, poor fortune.  And so it is with Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) who rises above this reality and in the face of death, does what he has to do to achieve success in his mission.

After surviving the beach invasion at Omaha Beach on D-Day, Miller reports to the radio control area to see the newly arrived military operations personnel relaxing, drinking hot coffee and eating large, meat-filled sandwiches.  He stares at his most comfortable surroundings with an emptiness suggesting disdain, knowing full well the horrors he and his men had experienced over the past few days in order to take the beach and set up the camp.  However he says nothing.  He is quick to think and very slow to speak.  And as soon as his superior officer calls his attention, he engages with his role again as soldier, leader and warrior.

What is it that makes these men the warriors they are?  They are on an entirely different level.  They are focussed on what’s important and have no time for the incidentals in life.  No time for the little things that tick us off.  Jesus is the greatest warrior that ever lived.   His words “Get behind me Satan” is exactly the approach we should take when things get up our nose, because chances are, Satan is the one who put them there.  All the greatest warriors in history have defeated their enemies with a mindset of ‘can do’.  They obviously new they could do it as they did it, but no doubt they were afraid too.  And this is what makes a warrior stand out.  They have a level of uniqueness far above everyone else.  And it all has to do with their mind and heart. We can choose to either be like the masses, or standout from everyone else.  But to do so we must give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit. In full! God is the only one who can create such a change in us that can lift us from normality and beyond.

This transformation will happen over time regardless of how we live our lives as long as we remain in Christ. But if we choose, we can die to ourselves through surrender and speed up the process. While we are on Earth, we should be in battle, so we are in effect a warrior for the Kingdom of God. If we are not waging battles in our mind, we may be just a little too lukewarm.  We live our lives the best when we can avoid distraction from the enemy, after all, that is his method of attack. To do this well we must re-prioritise, rethink and reform. The battle isn’t won through increasing physical abilities, but spiritual ones.  The little things that people don’t notice, except through our overall nature.  So generally, we are not trying to impress anyone by this, except God as those who standout above everyone else through their behaviour and demeanour attract a curiosity that can always be attributed to his work in us.   “What is it about them?”  “They are a Christ-follower!”  That’s the gossip we want people to speak of when they talk about us.

Jesus promises us time and time again throughout the scriptures, that this transformation brings us peace, then joy and life as it should be.  And beyond all this God is sovereign, so we really ought not to worry about too much other than striving for those attributes which will make us into a worthy spiritual warrior. So let the fleshly aspect die along with its desires and expectations.  Along with its reactions to the little things that the enemy and his dominions throw at us daily.  This must be the new default self.  Present in every moment of everyday.  This is the new creature God is after.

Will you allow him to make you unique?  One who stands out?

Make everything count (even the bad)....

We all have a story to tell.  Unfortunately a lot of our stories aren't great and involve heartbreak, failure and epic mistakes of all kinds.  Where God is the great "I am", we are too often the great "I shouldas".  "I shoulda done this or I shoulda done that."  But this allows for God to reveal the way he has created things in that second chances are always possible with him.  Pain can become joy, tears can turn to laughter.  And when you come from the valley to reach the mountaintop, it just means so much more.

This concept of reversing the trend has been spoken about at lengths in sermons, seminars, workshops, meetings and anywhere else you can think of.  It really is something that is undergirded by healing.  And through God’s providence, we all have available to us the resources necessary to turn life situations around.  God created time and I don’t know if you have noticed, but from the big bang on, time is an infinite resource.  It is something we are never going to run out of.  If you can think eternally, which should come easily with faith, you can relax knowing if you want to do something, you have an eternity to do it, as long as it is fruitful of course.  God also created us with the ability to heal.  And coupled with time, we can always return from the abyss of disappointment.  But we actually have to actively leave it.  And beyond that, we can be determined to achieve, next time, what ever we didn’t achieve the previous time.
And I believe, in fact I know, that God will allow you to fail in order to have you call on him and together, partake in the journey out of failure and into success.  Unfortunately, this is where the greatest spiritual growth happens.  No pain, no gain.  Pain is your enemy, yeah!  Well we need to love our enemies.

Speaker and author, Michael Hyatt, has written a blog post on this subject referring to it as composting your failures, which is a great way to describe getting growth out of a healthy historical perspective.  But we have to remember to keep most of our focus on the goal ahead, but use the past as a tool to get there.  That is why the rearview mirror is so much smaller than the front windscreen, as to go forward you need to see more of the forward and less of the behind.  Rocky Balboa did it all through the Rocky series.  He’d get a whooping, get the eye of the tiger and then come back and give a whooping.  He used his failure to go forward.  This is where we can all be warriors.  And that is exactly what God has called us to be.  So no matter what it is that has left you in a rut, you can get out of it.  And when you (and God) turn your fortunes around, there is no better experience.  It’s ten times better than if you had of achieved it the first time without failure.  One outta two can be better than one outta one!

Personally, I saw this happen with my football.  I began playing senior football in 1995 and played in my first senior grand final in 1997.  I wanted nothing more in life at that time, than to win a premiership so when we lost by 10 goals, I was gutted.  Two years later in 1999, we again made the grand final and lost by a point.  This time I was more than gutted.  I was inconsolable after the game and haunted by the result for months.  The next year, 2000, we made the grand final again and hadn’t beaten the team we were playing that year, however this time, against the odds, we won by two points.  And I know God had his hand right in the middle of it because the final score was 99 to 97, the previous years we had failed.  And this is how faithful God is because I wasn’t even saved yet, but he still gave me this gift and an invaluable lesson 8 years before I would give my heart to him.  What an amazing God!  With him we can reverse any trend....