Being in the Lord’s Army is a serious matter. We are in a real battle against a real enemy. We must always be on the lookout for an ambush, and even keep a watchful eye for those flaming darts. We are privileged to be a part of the Lord’s Army, and we fight alongside some of the choicest of God’s servants.
I have recently returned from a trip to the foxholes and trenches. I have watched some of the strongest warriors fight the good fight, and have seen some of the newest recruits in the trenches beside the veteran troops. For a good while, I watched as the two fought side by side against the enemy. It was a blessing to see such camaraderie.
However, I am saddened to report some of the other atrocities that I saw. I heard some proudly boasting of how good of soldiers they are, but no one was impressed. They have been fighting the enemy for many years, but their attitude toward the newer recruits was pathetic.
What horrified me was when they walked through the trenches – our OWN trenches – pointing out those that were not exactly the same as them. There were some that have only been in the Lord’s Army for a short time, and thus were not well-trained in the finer aspects of the soldier’s life and responsibilities. One soldier did not have his haircut to the liking of the proud soldiers, and he was immediately shot. As they continued on, they saw another whose uniform was not perfectly pressed, and his boots were unpolished. He, too, was shot. As the proud soldiers went on examining every young, immature recruit, they found some that still had earrings, wore necklaces, listened to the wrong music, and were unskilled in their use of the Sword. They did not encourage the young, willing soldiers, nor did they try and help them. They were all shot on-the-spot. The boastful soldiers walked on, bragging about what they had done, thinking that they were doing a service to the Lord’s Army. In reality, the forces were being dwindled down to a meager handful of troops.
One awful aspect I noticed was that these arrogant soldiers had stopped firing at the enemy, and had been killing our own. Their ammunition was used on our own soldiers. The casualty rate of our own troops was sickening. While the proud, murderous soldiers talked about “cleansing the Army of scumbags,” they failed to see the filth on their own uniforms, and the leeches that had attached themselves to the proud troops.
They talked about recruiting new soldiers, but their reputation had gone on ahead of them, and not many were willing to join the Army for fear of being killed by “friendly-fire.”
After a short while, I began to feel nauseous, numb, and light-headed. How could this be happening? How could they do this?
I confronted these proud, arrogant soldiers to try and reason with them, explaining that we need to be fighting the enemy, and not be killing our own troops. I thought that they would listen to reason, repent of their actions, and return again to fight the real enemy.
They looked at me with disdain, and began to call me a compromiser, a backslider, a moderate, a neo-evangelical, and other words I dare not repeat. They informed me that they had been in the Lord’s Army for a lot longer than I have been, and that I should mind my own business, or that I would be the next in their cross-hairs!
Sadly, I had to turn from the ones that I had looked up to for so long, to try and go back and help those that had been shot. Many were injured and had no desire to return to the fight. Some were trying to get back up and go after the ones who did this to them. A few, although hurting, kept their attention on the real fight against the real enemy, and tried to forget about the damage that was done by our own troops.
I was kept busy as I tried to fight the good fight on one hand, and take the time to heal the broken-hearted on the other hand. We must not neglect to fight in the raging battle, but we cannot neglect the injured, either.
Christian soldier, we don’t need to be shooting our own, nor should we have to stop fighting because we are too busy attending to those injured by “friendly-fire.” Keep your sights on the enemy, and your ammunition to be used in the good fight against our foe. Let’s not shoot our comrades, our colleagues, our family, and our friends, but let us fight the good fight together, and not forget who the REAL enemy is.