the Requiest

The word duty was brought up at a recent meeting of the SMGC and it was pointed out that it has come to have a rather negative connotation. I have to admit that as I’ve gotten older the idea of what duty means has been tarnished by my cynical nature.

Case in point is that my son will be leaving in July for a 6 year commitment with the Air Force. Now I have no quandaries about him going into the military. I myself did 4 years in the Army and look back favorably on it as an excellent maturational period in my life. I know my sons reasons for going into the service but at one point when asking him he said that he felt an obligation to serve his country. I distinctly remember bristling at that concept as much as an anarchist would. And I did so because when he said country I immediately jumped from that word to my personal feelings in regards to our political representatives and questioned why would you want to serve such a base, power hungry group of self serving bastards?! Is it really a noble cause you serve when our leaders appear morally questionable and our political system reeks of corruption? And even as I type these few simple sentences I can feel myself being pulled onto my soap box, my dander rising and bristling with self righteous indignation.

What an ass I can be. 

An ass, because I have to remember back to being his age, when my thoughts weren’t as jaded, when truth and justice were clearly defined in black and white terms and when the secular media had not as yet so blurred and skewed my reasoning. Obligation to country, It Is a Noble desire to have.  Images of a knight errant raising his sword and yelling for God and King before steadfastly plunging into battle – no thought to personal fate or injury, selfless and in all things seeking truth and honor. That’s the image I should always have when I think of duty. I have to remind myself of these virtues. I have to remind myself that as a Christian I am called by my Lord and Master to such duty – and that is a noble cause.

I leave you with this –

1 Samuel 14:6-7
6Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these^(I) uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us,^(J) for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." 7And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish.^[b] Behold, I am with you heart and soul."

I can’t remember where or from whom I saw it, but there is a recent blog post “out there” with well over a hundred comments from people writing in the things that you’ll never hear in church – but probably should. This past Saturday at our SMGC meeting the following two comments were made.

Life was just a whole lot easier before I became a Christian.

Yakuza

I guess in some ways life was easier. Neither the Yakuza or myself were married before we became Christians. The only responsibility we had was to ourselves. We did what we wanted, when we wanted and how we wanted with nary a second thought. These days not only do we have our wives and children to consider in our decision making, but we have also become heirs of the King of Kings and that requires an entirely new consideration be made in all things. So yeah, maybe life was easier, but easier doesn’t equate as better and how much better it is to actually be alive now.

In regards to a discussion on giving a “real” testimony this comment was made.

Here’s my testimony, “Before I became a Christian life sucked. And it still sucks!”

Potstirrer

By “real” we were meaning it would be refreshing to hear someone being seriously honest with their testimony.  We’re tired of hearing the honey coated good life that appears to be the due of the regenerated sinner because the 6 of us just aren’t seeing that. We’re still here stuck in this infernal fallen world with all it’s fettering chains. We all seemed to have missed out on receiving our rose colored glasses when we accepted Christ as our Savior. So the next time someone asks for you to give your testimony be honest about it. I hate to get up everyday and realize that I’ve got to go to work at job that feels pointless, the wife and I are still dealing with xxxx and we don’t seem to be able to reconcile over it. I have a difficult time disciplining my kids because nothing I do seems to have any impact on their willful behavior.

BUT….

we know with assurance that someday this will all fade away and we’ll find rest at the feet of our Lord.

That’s a real testimony