A New Battle, An Ancient Battlefield

The citizenry had never known peace.

The soldiers didn’t remember who they were fighting for.

The commanders lived for the battle.

The enemy demanded the king step down, and daily more of his own people agreed. He knew abdicating would condemn them all to slavery. But he would never deny his throne. He was the king and could be nothing else.

—–

Joshua arrived at the front, hidden amid the day’s reinforcements. He received a half our demonstration of how to use a sword, an hour of lecture on the importance of obeying your superior officers, without question. Then the drill sergeant asked if anyone had any questions.

Joshua raised his hand. He asked why the training had never mentioned the king. The veteran soldier bellowed out that it had been a rhetorical question. Good soldiers didn’t ask questions, they just obeyed.

His commanders assigned him to defend a stronghold. He refused, even though they repeatedly reminded him of obedience. Joshua explained, the tower had not been built at the king’s command, it required massive resources, and had no strategic value in the battle.

The angry commanders ordered him to the front, to the location of the fiercest fighting. The commanders hoped he would die there. He didn’t.

When Joshua’s group returned from that assignment, he had been given a field promotion to squad leader. He was followed by many men, including several who had deserted and fought with the enemy. The commanders were livid, asserting those soldiers were traitors worthy of death.

Joshua defended those men, declaring the king rejoiced at their return. This caused the commanders to assert they were the only ones capable of passing on the king’s wishes. Joshua answered these men they rejected were more pleasing to the king than the commanders.

Joshua was charged with treason. The trial was an unholy spectacle, and both sides quit fighting to watch. Joshua was condemned to death, and at the execution the enemy lines celebrated. The commanders couldn’t understand why.

—–

After a few days two weary armies prepared to resume an endless war. Troops on each side of the battlefield waited for the command to charge. They were interrupted by a solitary soldier riding between them.

It was Joshua. He called together all who were loyal to the king, no matter which side they were from. He had paid the price for their treason, those who loved the king could return to serving him.

In the hours that followed, the lines were redrawn. Commanders who had served the battle

instead of the king, were now with the enemy. Joshua, the king’s son, took command of the king’s armies.

The battle was still eternal, but now they knew who they fought for.

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Cactus Wren

This is a cactus wren, the state bird in Arizona. This bird knows how to exist in the desert. It doesn’t need any freestanding water to survive, being able to get all the moisture it needs from its food. It also has learned to take good advantage of the prickly nature of cactus.

Perhaps the most menacing of the cacti is the jumping cholla, a plant that will have sections break off and lodge itself in unwary passersby. These sections then will work their way deeper into the victim as they attempt to get free, unless they know exactly how to remove them. Cactus wren will commonly nest in these plants though, skillfully building down in the middle of the cacti’s natural defenses.

This does not stop all possible predators, but attempting to raid a nest is unlikely to succeed because not only is the location highly defensible, but the birds are known to aggressively defend their homes. When a predator attempts to access it, the birds will knock them off balance amid the deadly spines.

One story of such an event is on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. They mention a Yuma antelope squirrel that was knocked into the spines and then to the ground. The cactus wren is able to successfully defend its nest because of the combination of a defensible position and aggressive defensive behavior.

Believers should take note of this combination.

The first step to success is to find a defensible position. The easiest way for a Christian to remain in a defensible position is to carefully and closely align yourself with God. Being in agreement with Biblical morality and strong in your personal relationship with God through Christ will allow you to miss the attacks that come from being unprepared and practicing immorality. Much of the warfare believers face is because they are living morally compromised and spiritually distant.

The second step is to know when and how to fight back for the remaining attacks. This can be tricky because our warfare is not like the battles of this world, so our defensive behavior needs to be different. Very often it is a Spirit led word of witness for the Lord. There may be times when the appropriate defense is to simply to explain a misunderstanding, socially or theologically. Increasingly in our world, the defensive component includes political involvement such as voting, campaigning, and political action campaigns. In all cases, our defense includes speaking out, not rudely, but gently and truthfully.

Consider Ephesians 6:11-13 (HCSB)

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.

 

 

Soul Harvest

The restaurant was a front for a Chinese gang. It was full of bodyguards, yet the tough guys ran out when he strolled in.

“I’m surprised to see you here.” The boss’s voice had a slight tremble.

“Think of me as a gentlemen farmer, coming to collect my harvest.”

“You put me in charge, I have it under control.”

“I am the landowner; you are merely a sharecropper. I planted the soil starting with the night your father visited that prostitute you called mom. I fertilized the fields with drugs and gambling. I weeded the land by driving out churches and bribing the police.”

“Don’t you mean I did those things for you?”

“No, I mean I used you to do them, giving you every idea and opportunity. I did it. Not you.”

The boss put his hand on a gun hidden under the table.

“Go ahead, shoot me. It will help me with the harvest.” It was one last command given the hireling.

The bullet passed harmlessly through the farmer, out the glass, and lodged in the wall beside of a thug. The man returned fire, and the harvest began.

Inside the restaurant, the boss had a neat hole through his head. The police never found a bullet.

This story was written for a flash fiction competition I entered this morning.  Probably one of my favorite stories of this sort. It is an example of being able to imply things with fiction that would be complicated to discuss in a teaching setting. Do you see anything in this story, stated or implied, that you would like to discuss? I would love to hear from you.