If a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defense of it by its friends.
~Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.
Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. For He has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.” The path of the righteous is level; You make level the way of the righteous. In the path of Your judgments, O LORD, we wait for You; Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for You in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks You. For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD. O LORD, Your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for Your adversaries consume them. O LORD, You will ordain peace for us, for You have indeed done for us all our works. O LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but Your name alone we bring to remembrance.
~ from Isaiah 26
Oh beloved, it is true. We get bigger as we go. As we walk down the path He has set before us, we begin to learn obedience. And as we do, there will be many who do not understand. There will also be many who make themselves our enemies as a result of the fact that we no longer conform to their views and comply with their wishes.
Oh, we stumble on the path. But, we have learned to sing the song of the redeemed. As we fall and skin our knees, we find that the path is not so rough any more. We find, instead, that the path is His hand. And, we find that while His hand is soft in its protection and discipline of us, it is Rock hard in its defense of His children. This combination of comfort and protection really does set our hearts to singing.
Still, what can and does happen, is that He will let us experience some of the buffeting going on around us.
People who we thought were friends, speak evil against us.
People we thought we could trust, lie to us.
People we hoped were team mates, make themselves to be enemies.
And all of this, really hurts.
Can we see it?
It is not really that we are any bigger than we were. No, any of the righteousness we have gained is His. We never had any of our own. But, the righteousness He works in us and through us waxes large. And, if we will let it, He will cast us around the globe in our following His Great Commission. This casting, casts a great light (read: His Light) into some very dark places.
People, especially those who are indeed small, will not understand. In their misunderstanding, they will see our works, they will see that we we are growing in freedom, they will see that we are becoming less attached to the things that they hold onto within their soulish frames, and they will be intimidated. This will be true, because they do not understand that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who Lives in us, and through us.
So, as people like this see the gains we are making, they will sometimes paint a target on us, and try to take us out. Oh, they are not always being hateful. Often, other believers think they are being righteous in their endeavors to tear down what other believers are doing. They cannot understand, so they give in to fear, or anger, or lies, or a combination all three to do what they think they need to do, to protect the fidelity of their model of christianity.
However, the temptation for each of us, who are a bit farther down the path, is to lash out in kind. But thankfully, on our better days, we have learned to no longer yearn to be right, or to have to win, or even to fight. Rather, when we have our eyes looking in the right direction, we yearn for the Only Thing that has ever worked. We yearn for Him, instead of some sort of victory in this world.
This yearning for Him, also has a wonderful side effect: we see that He is Love. We see that He is fiercely willing to protect those under His wing. This understanding shows us that we have absolutely no need to pick up on our temptation to make other people the enemy. They are indeed enemies, but they are enemies of their own progress, and they will be consumed by their lack of progress as the goodness of G_d burns them up in their rebellion.
So, are you the target of people who have made themselves out to be your enemy? Don’t worry. And don’t look at them or what they are doing. There is One Who is looking out for you. He has your back. Look at Him. He will handle things quite well, thank you. You are not alone.
Tonight is your night. Time to believe in your King. He is your Peace.
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
~Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
