They spotted me.
I could hear their commander barking out orders,
“Bravo Charlie – bogie 10:00, move, move, move! Surround and terminate!”
What the…what’s going on?! My two fellow combatants immediately ran away. They were not up to a fight with these guys.
Before I knew it, I was all alone.
Being alone was bad enough, but by the time I thought through what had happened, what was happening, and what was about to happen, it was too late. I had not moved from the position in which I was originally spotted. They not only knew my location, but they had moved with such precision they now surrounded me.
I was behind a very large west coast cedar tree, which provided me with some cover, but any lateral movement made me wide open to their expert marksmen. So I did what any cocky early twenties weekend warrior would do – I froze with fear. I know, I know, I should have wheeled out from behind the tree with guns blazing, but I didn’t.
I’d like to say that I fought bravely and died quickly. But it would be more accurate to say that I thought slowly and died quickly. These guys we were fighting against knew how to keep moving forward as a unit, and we didn’t. I got caught alone; I got caught standing still.
And now I was dead. They simply confirmed their kill and kept moving forward.
It was the early 80’s and a group of my friends and I were playing this newly created war game known as Paint Ball. We were in the woods of BC and just happened to be pitted against the reigning BC Champs. These guys were serious weekend warriors. Truth be told, they were a little odd, but they knew how to fight together.
They sure dispatched us with expert precision.
I learned a valuable lesson that day: if you want to live, keep moving forward. And I learned that sometimes to move forward you need to move sideways and even backwards.
If I had kept moving, together with the rest of my fighting friends, I would have lived to fight another day. Or at least I would have lived for more of the day.
Moving = life. Standing still = death.
I believe this is not only a principle for success at Paint Ball, but it is a principle for spiritual success as well.
If we are not intent on moving forward in Jesus; if we do not keep “pressing on toward the goal” as Paul says, we will find our faith declining. If we think we can rely on “yesterday’s manna” we cannot sustain a vibrant spiritual health.
I thought I was safe where I was comfortable in a good hiding spot, but the enemy soon found me, surrounded me, and killed me.
If we choose to say in a safe, comfortable place in regard to our relationship with Jesus, or in regard to how we are choosing or not choosing to serve Him and serve others, we will begin to die. Faith is like a muscle, if it is not exercised it atrophies (shrinks) and gets weaker and weaker until it has no strength left.
Our faith must be exercised to be vibrant and growing – we must choose to keep moving forward in Jesus. We must choose to walk in communion with Him, listening to and obeying His leading in our lives even when it may be intimidating, or perhaps terrifying.
If you think you can sit still in a comfortable place of hiding and continue to grow, you are fooling yourself. Your spiritual enemies have already begun to surround you to take you out and take you down.
If we are going to experience the victory and life Jesus has for us we must keep moving forward. We must continue to seek Him. We must continue to walk in community with our fellow freedom fighters – the Church. We must continue to appropriate His Truth in our lives. We must continue to serve. We must continue to love. We must continue to give.
Press on to take hold of that for which Jesus took hold of you.
Keep moving forward.
Philippians 3:13, 14
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”
Hebrews 10:35, 36
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”