A Wake Up Call About My Past

I have been reading an excellent book. "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw.

The book is a look at how the world perceived Jesus when he arrived on the scene 2000years ago. The authors start with a look at the Old Testament and what the Hebrew people would have known and expected from Messiah.

The part that most impacted me is the section dealing with the Roman Empire and the vocabulary that Jesus borrowed that would have had significant impact on his audience both Jewish and Roman.

In the section when they start talking about application to our culture I was intrigued and interested, but was shocked last night reading the third section.

In the book they tell the story of a young man, Logan, who went to Fort Benning to be trained as an infantry soldier. In 1990 I went to Fort Benning and I completed the training and "turned blue" (pinned on my infantry rifles).

Logan tells that the day he was handed his rifle he realized he could not carry the rifle and honor Jesus. So he went through the process of being humiliated and discharged from the Army.

My story was different. I had graduated from Bible College and started seminary. The day our unit was handed our rifles someone in my platoon asked me, "how do I know I can trust you when we go into battle"? I turned and looked him in the eye and said, "I have thought long and hard about this and believe me you can trust me in battle more than you can trust anyone else in this unit".

I have told and re-told that story in the last 18 years. I told it with pride to demonstrate my maturity and dedication to my nation.

Last night, I felt like I imagine Peter felt when he told Jesus, "Get away from me, I am a sinful man".

How was it that I had studied the Bible and had a degree to prove it and missed the point? Never in my diligent thinking about killing the enemy, had it crossed my mind what a paradox it was for a man of God to be killing the enemy that Jesus said to love?

I had sworn allegiance to a flag and a symbol that asked and demanded of me that I take the life of someone who God loved. They asked me to be willing to destroy and desecrate the image of God in another man, because the man was from another nation that had a dispute with my nation.

I have many friends who continue to wear their uniforms and serve their country in different branches of the military. I love them and pray for them. I could never do it again. I wish I could go back to that day in Columbus GA and tell those young men around me, "You are right, as a follower of Jesus I will never be able to do the job of an infantry soldier"!