I love a good action movie. I blame it on having two older
brothers, but I nonetheless just love them! I recently came across a clip from
the miniseries, Band of Brothers, where this guy, Ronald Speirs,
literally runs through enemy lines and back in the middle of a cross fire!! His
courage is unreal, and I want it!! I don’t plan to me in the military, or see
myself in that kind of situation, but I want my spiritual faith to look like
that! Even though it is unseen, we live, in the words of Billy Graham, “in a
perpetual battlefield,” and we are in this spiritual battle whether we want to
be in it or not!
As I pursue a fearless life in Him, I want my actions to
bear witness to this courage. Captain Speirs saw a need, and without hesitancy
ran full fledge ahead into the danger to meet this need,and accomplish what
needed to be done. My prayer is that I would one day be able to come to a point
where I trust God and have that kind of a faith in Him. A faith and obedience
to Him that allows me to, without hesitancy, get up and run into whatever crazy
thing He has me do, and let His light shine because of it! I mean can you
imagine a world where Christians, soldiers of God, lived like that? Where we
just fearlessly obeyed!
I see glimpses of this. I hear tons of stories of
missionaries and such doing some pretty wild things for Christ! But I also know
that this can be done in the everyday! I know because I have seen it countless
times from my older brother. I’ll never forget this one time when I was in the
car with him at a red light, and this guy getting on a bus in front of us
dropped his groceries and was trying to pick them up quickly and get on the bus
before it left, and my brother just pulled up the emergency break, jumped out
of the car, ran over picking up the cans rolling down the street, and helped
get the man on the bus, and then ran back, and continued driving home. Or this
past summer when some super sketch people came up to us asking for money for
food and he took them to starbucks (they wanted coffee, and he didn’t just give
them McDonalds, he treated them to the best! I thought that spoke volumes as
well!) got them some coffee and pastries, and then gave them his phone number
in case it ever rained and they needed a place to crash!!! I was shocked!! I
can’t imagine living that way and taking those risks!! Risks that honestly look
foolish and yet are just so amazing!! I don’t know how some people have such
instinctive courage but I want God, if it is His will, to foster that in me. I
want to live so fearlessly for Him that everyone else around me thinks I am a
fool, but at the same time are challenged, like I am, by what was done. That
kind of instinctive courage is so inspiring and can be used in some pretty
powerful ways!!
So whether it is sitting next to the loner at the lunch
table, or selling all you have and serving in some impoverished and war filled
country, my prayer would be that if God nudges, we obey and do so with courage.
I pray that we would live so selflessly, and with such faith, that we could
unblinkingly obey no matter what! I think there are daily, opportunities to
live with this kind of courage. Let’s let God foster it in us. Let’s seek these
opportunities out, and let God develop this kind of fearlessness in us, so that
if ever the day comes when God asks us to run through enemy lines and back, we
can!!
Deuteronomy 31:6
"Be strong and
courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the
one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."
John 16:33
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me
you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have
overcome the world."
*Go to 6:20 in the video!
