Vis et Honor (Strength and Honor)

An honorable man restores the dignity of others.
~Anonymous

You shall therefore lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all His ways, and holding fast to Him, then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as He promised you.
~ יהוה‬ , in Joshua 1

Oh beloved, it is true.

Each of us is built a different way. We are not though – as some say – snowflakes. We will, in the course of our eternal course, never cease to exist. However, there is an enormous range of how our course will play out.

This fool of a writer was built for one thing. I am a warrior. I have had my moments of cheating death in physical situations. I have tasted the metallic acid in my throat as death was actually quite near a few short moments in my life.  Additionally… i have been on the bank of that river a few other ways. Bad choices and bad medicine put me very, very close to the other side as well.

So, i know what death looks like. I know what death tastes like. And, i have grinned in its face enough to know that i want nothing to do with it.

However, much of the warfare for which He has built me, has nothing to do with gunpowder or terrorists, or accidents. The hardest warfare of my life has been in the spiritual realm. He has taught me to pray. And, in some of the longer battles, i have fought to be witness to the moving of the fabric of the universe, and to the saving of men’s souls at a distance.

Some of the warfare has been right up close. I have been in a number of situations in Asia, where a demonic being manifested itself in oppression over a loved one, or in possession of someone in my presence. And, actually, this is the simplest fight. When we know who we are, in Him, we simply tell the imp to be gone – it is especially satisfying when our King gives orders to send that one to the abyss.

But, there is a terribly, enormously, gargantuanly larger kind of battle at hand.

Can we see it?

Warriors do indeed have the prerogative to tear things down. This is actually what a military does: It kills people and breaks things, until the enemy surrenders. However, for true victory to occur, there must be a rebuilding in the aftermath of the battle. (see Battle Softened Warrior )

So, in this is the sign of a true warrior. Will all of my actions be bound by BOTH strength AND honor? It is easy to destroy. But, it is totally another thing to use force to bring goodness to others. It is even more difficult to veil one’s own potential power, that others might be elevated.

Yes, a warrior is a weaponized person. However, the most devastating warriors are those who know how to impart truth to their surroundings. The most potent soldier is the one who knows how to protect the children behind him while he fights of the enemy in front of him.

So, are you feeling like G_d has built you for the fight? You very well may be right. However, the question you will want to ask first, is: What do I want to do with the power He might give me?

Tonight is your night, warrior. Strength and Honor are only good when both are in the mix.

Meekness is an unchanging state of mind, which both in honor and dishonor remains the same. Meekness consists in praying sincerely and undisturbedly in the face of afflictions from one’s neighbor. Meekness is a cliff rising from the sea of irritability, against which all the that waves that strive against it break, but which is itself never broken.
~St. John of the Ladder