GIVE THEM A HAND
Michael Caine began his climb to movie stardom with his part in the movie Zulu. Perhaps you’ll remember that it centers round a relative handful of
soldiers in a "fort" (a clearing with a number of farm buildings in it)
fighting a series of pitched battles against a Zulu host that compared
with them was too large to calculate. After every attack they had fewer
men and the central area grew smaller. When the scene is set for the
final Zulu attack that would over-run the garrison, maybe a dozen troops
fully purposed to die before tamely surrendering or running away. It
was then that what they feared most appeared. Instead of many numerous
smaller units attacking various points as before the whole Zulu force
silently appeared on the top of the hill that ran round one side of the
collection of buildings that was their fort. For the first time the
soldiers realized the size of their enemy, now seeing it in one vast
gathering. The enemy stood silently looking down on them, letting them
sense the full strength of the force against them, the force they had
been refusing to give in to. Then the whole multitude of warriors began
to chant/sing in that awesome way of theirs; both lovely and
spine-tingling, thunderous, rhythmic and musical—but awesome!
Shaken to
the core the remnant then heard a Zulu chief call to them with words
they thought were insult and threats. But one who knew the country and
knew the Zulus put them at ease by telling them that he was praising
their courage and that this whole exhibition of song and sermon was a
hymn to their gallantry. The Zulu host walked away shaking their heads
in admiring disbelief and left the handful their lives. That single
scene made enduring the whole movie worthwhile. You don’t have to agree
with war to applaud courage and you don’t have to think weapons settle
anything to rise to your feet to praise gallantry. [And weapons don't
settle anything! I know there'smore to be said about that but this isn't
the place.]
Moral and spiritual battles are no less real, no less
fierce and certainly no less prolonged than the other wars. There are
those among us who are privileged to follow the Lord Jesus who make daily war against besetting sins that threaten to
entirely unravel them. Sins that would suck the courage right out of them
and lead them to abject despair because they seem to overcome the battlers with such
contemptuous ease no matter how earnestly they vow to win the next
encounter.
Time and time and time again they suffer loss but refuse to
give up the citadel of the soul. There are people who live under the
toughest circumstances and face the temptation to quit the struggle,
spit in the eye of God and let their passions and their weariness be
their lord. But here they come again, crawling up to the barricade to
take their place with others in opposing the enemy. And then there are
those--God bless them!--that wrestle with sinister drives that they
refuse to allow to become besetting sins.
To love those who love us is not particularly
difficult. Jesus knew that and wanted to know, "If you love only those
who love you, what do you do more than 'outsiders'?" He doesn't despise
us for loving those who love us--he fully expects it from us. But does
he not expect more from us he has called by his gospel to be his Body,
to live in his image? There must be more to life in the Lord Jesus, more
to furthering his purpose than being polite to the Walmart check out
lady or loving our adorable children, as non-Christians in their
millions do.
What do you make of those who remain Christlike who live next door to
"neighbors from hell"? What do you say about those who fight sinister
inner drives they never asked for and fight them not for a day or a
month or two but for years, for a lifetime? What are we to think of the
impoverished and crushed who simply will not allow these things to lead
them to covenant infidelity.
If you know some of them, give them a hand. Look for
them tomorrow as you Commune with the Lord Jesus because they'll be
there; gallant as ever. But don't leave them struggling on their own.
These are the unsung
heroes of the world. George Adam Smith was right on target when he said
this.
"What starved garrison, that marched from its
inviolate fortress with all the honors of war and to the admiration of
its foes, ever deserved half the glory...which thousands of tempted
souls deserve...who hold the fortresses of their lonely lives against
the devils of dishonesty and greed and lust. And yet you have strong
men whining to-day all the world over—and some of them parading their
whines in literature—that the temptations of their strength are too
great for them; and slipping off into the pleasant mire with the cry, I
cannot help it. What forgetfulness! What cowardice!"