TRUE HEROISM

But Why All the Anti-Heroes? C. 2014 Doug Blair, Waterloo, ON

Fierce

The First Psalm tells us that there is blessing in staying clear away from the influence of the ungodly, the sinners, the scornful.I take particular notice of the last item, scornful. Listen to people talk these days. Teachers have no authority over students. Parents don't know or trust their kids, and vice-versa. Politicians are a bunch of vote craving manipulators of public opinion. If the people even bother to consider issues any more. Diplomats talk out of both sides of their mouths. The world is on the brink. It is almost too painful for most to consider where we are headed.This has become the age of the anti-hero. Tony Soprano is a cut-throat mobster living in the suburbs. The Breaking Bad high school chemistry teacher Walter White decides to take up lucrative drug manufacture, and comes to love the power and the violence more than the money. The Sons of Anarchy are a bunch of bikers living like alley-cats and completely taking over a town for purposes of their own trade. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a ninety-five pound bi-sexual package of hateful revenge. Many watch them, talk about them, become sympathetic toward them, and totally deadened to the outrage that should exist over their mis-deeds.I can think of a comment by the Apostle Paul:2 Timothy 3:This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.Are we not seeing all of this craziness? Our challenge is to demonstrate and to live in another mind-set:Philippians 4:8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.There is a battle on every front of society that demonstrates how few continue to see the wisdom of Paul's words. They are titillated by the high emotional impact of the outrage and they choose to live there.And they wonder why contentment and peace steal away like the morning mist.

Tenderness

My recent post "Fierce" offered a complaint with no real solution. It suggested a healthy mind-set as an anti-dote but no real way to get there.This morning I think I turned the corner to an answer. I was checking today's entry in a book of devotionals attributed to English evangelist Smith Wigglesworth. Listen to Smith:Before his conversion, in his passion and zeal, Paul would do anything to bring Christians to death. His passion raged like a mighty lion. As he was going to Damascus, he heard the voice of Jesus saying, Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? What touched him was the tenderness of God.Friends, it is always God's tenderness that reaches us. He comes to us in spite of our weakness and depravity. If somebody came to oppose us, we would stand our ground, but when he comes to forgive us we do not know what to do. Oh, to gain Christ! A thousand things in the nucleus of the human heart need softening a thousand times a day. There are things in us that unless God shows us "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus," we will never be broken and brought to ashes. But God will do it.This is truly how Jesus won the day. Look at his treatment of the Samaritan woman at the well, or of Zacchaeus up the sycamore tree, or of the distraught father with the epileptic son. Tenderness. Not confrontation, judgment or butt kicking. And they needed this tenderness as much as oxygen. And He, Jesus, could offer it undiluted, unmixed, uncompromised.Will this posture or message play well in a society of scornful anti-heroes? It will. Eventually.And God must get the glory.

Instruments of Change

"And souls of men"The wicked City reeksWith every kind of tradeFrom food to gemsTo bondage Commerce made.But God sees allAnd "hisses" for reliefAnd makes a man, or twoHis vessels ending grief.And they are caughtAs in the vise of loveAnd work, scarce known,Deliverance from above.Oh find some wayAnd make it clearTo these nowFaltering eyes;My own small partIn Mercy's Enterprise.(Zechariah 9: 8-12)(Zechariah 10: 5-9)

Hero

Every thought of HimAn act of worship.Every look uponThat unseen faceA study of calmCompassion and courage.The face marred moreThan any mans,Taking barbsAnd spittle in the streets.Pressing onwardTo Destinys Hill.Dreading it.Loving it.The Mission finishedBy noblest act of will.A Father pleasedThough forced to look awayThat death might payFor every trespassEver done.Its dark, butSoon the risingOf the Son.My Hero.

The Day the Earth Sang

A friend once told me the remarkable story of a village of Chinese Christians faced with the relentless opposition of Mao and ultimately rounded up for humiliation, "re-indoctrination" or execution. The believers remained true to their exalted Head and were marched out of town to dig their own mass grave. Not a one wavered from his/her confidence in Christ.

The soldiers of enforcement were visibly shaken by what they were required to do to these gentle people. They ordered the group to go down into the pit, and to lie down on their backs, awaiting the shoveling-over process. Their pastor began to sing a treasured Gospel praise chorus of the fellowship. All the rest joined in, gaining a kind of supernatural confidence.

Their persecutors could not bear the pressure and the pathos of this moment. They hastened the burial process with the clanging of hurried spades. The singing continued as the worshipers disappeared from view. Now the very earth appeared to sing the praises of Jesus. The song became softer, gentler. Finally smothered.

In the years that followed many of those soldiers with spades took up the praises from the earth as their very song and hope. They joined the family of faith. Left their hostility and guilt behind.

Jesus said concerning His own martyrdom, "Except a seed fall into the ground and die, it will bear no fruit."

Again I am considering the prospect of present enemies becoming, with time and prayer, fellow members of the family of faith. With God all things are possible. Forgiveness and tenderness will lead the way.

The present-day upsurge of vital Christianity in China is overwhelming!