Homecoming
What Do You Do When the Battle Is Over?
By Todd Uebele
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. -- Romans 8:35-37
omparisons between the military and our spiritual lives are common throughout the Bible. Our lives are often compared to “battles” in a spiritual war. Many great sermons have been preached about the battle we fight as Christians. Many great articles have been written about the need to equip ourselves properly, to use the proper weapons, and to alert us to the tactics of the enemy. There are tremendous resources and wonderful lessons to be gleaned from scripture about the war we fight each and every day. That battles that rage around us, the “good fight” we must endure. What happens when the battle has ended though? We know how to fight, we know the equipment, and we know the tactics. However, little is taught on the aftermath of battle. What do we do when the battle is over?
Lessons Learned
When I was out on deployment some years ago, we would run through many types of drills and exercises. On one occasion, we happened to be in the South China Sea with another Carrier Battle Group. This was such a rare occasion that the Navy decided to use the opportunity for another exercise. This one was to be a “joint” exercise between the two battle groups. The purpose was actually very simple. We were to defend the carriers against an attack from undetected submarines. Carrying out such a simple assignment was, well, not so simple. A few hours after the exercise began, all of the escorts were “sunk” by the “enemy.” While I am proud to say my ship was the last of the escorts to go down, we too failed at meeting our objective. Once all the escorts were sunk, the subs made for the carriers and had a field day. When all was said and done, one of the subs was sunk and all of the “allied” ships were sunk. For all intents and purposes, the exercise was a complete failure.
When it was over, the talking heads got together to discuss the exercise and put together a “Lessons Learned” package that was distributed to the ships. The report went over what was done wrong and what was done right. Then it pulled out any lessons that could be learned from what happened and applied them to changes in tactics and procedures. Basically we learned from what happened, whether it was good or bad. Then, when we ran through a similar exercise, we managed to sink the "enemy" instead of being sunk ourselves.
As Christians in the “mother of all” spiritual wars, we should do the same thing when we have completed a particular battle. We need to get together with our church family and go over what we did right, what we did wrong, and, most importantly, what we learned from the experience. At the very least, we should go to God in prayer and study His Word, and let the Master Strategist show us what we need to learn from the experience.
Every spiritual battle we go through will be different. Every time we fight we will learn distinct lessons. What’s more, different people go through diverse experiences and learn different things. In spite of this, I believe there are a few “lessons learned” that can be gleaned from any battle. A few “core lessons,” if you will, that we can all learn no matter what our experience has been. I would like to touch on two such lessons briefly.
Faith – When you are down in the trenches, dirty, grimy and worn out, it is very easy to lose sight of the big picture. When any of us are in the “thick of it,” it is all too simple to forget ourselves, to lose ourselves in the battle. In doing so, we can also lose sight of our Leader, Christ. He has promised to protect us, to carry us, to bring us out of the trenches and on towards victory. Looking at the battle from the outside, that is easy to see and remember, but when the flaming arrows of the enemy are heading straight for you, or whizzing overhead, it’s not.
That is why it is so important to go to God. We cannot see the big picture, but He can! A soldier sitting in his trench has to rely on what HQ is telling him. He cannot see the big picture from where he is, and that is why he seeks guidance from his superiors. We too, should seek guidance from our superior, the General of generals, our Father in Heaven! Go to Him in prayer and he will guide you:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them. -- Isaiah 42:16
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make straight your way before me. – Psalm 5:8
Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long. – Psalm 25:4-5
David was constantly seeking guidance from the Lord. Not only that, but he had faith that God would answer him, protect him and carry him through. How I wish I had such faith as David! In his many battles, David learned that no matter how dark the circumstances God would carry him through. The Lord, would guide him and protect him, all David needed was the faith to rely on Him. I recently learned something of faith myself: no matter how far you fall, God will not let you hit bottom. It goes back to protection. The Lord is our Great Protector, and promises to catch us. He does not promise that we will not fall, but to grab hold of us before we hit the rocks:
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. – Psalm 91:11-12
This is probably the most comforting passage of scripture I have ever read. When you fall, and all of us do at some point, God will command His angels to catch you before you “strike your foot against a stone.” Before even a toe of yours hits the ground, God’s angels will have you safe in hand. This is comforting to me, because it allows that we will fall, and it shows that when we do we will be saved. One of the first things I mentioned about faith is how easy it is to lose sight of things when you are “in the thick of it.” When you are falling it is easy to despair, easy to feel forsaken. We are not forsaken though, and that passage in Psalm 91 proves it. It shows that when things look hopeless, we do, in fact, have hope!
Hope – That brings us to the second lesson learned in battle: No matter how grim things look, there is always hope. During WWI, “The soldiers – unequipped to face the rigors of the cold and rain – found themselves wallowing in a freezing mire of mud and the decaying bodies of the fallen.”[1] It was an altogether miserable time. However, on 24 December, 1914, soldiers of both sides found hope in the midst of their misery.
Accounts differ widely as to the true nature of the “Christmas Truce,” but starting Christmas Eve and lasting well into the night on Christmas day, there was no separation by nationality. What had looked out to be a miserable holiday away from loved ones, stuck in cold and mud, turned out to be a day of hope and celebration. The spiritual battle is no different. While we will never be fraternizing with the enemy like the soldiers of WWI, we do have hope even in the direst of situations. The Bible tells us as much!
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. -- Romans 5:3-5
Ironically enough, it was this past Christmas that taught me this very thing. In the Sundays leading up to the most holy day, the pastors at our church preached a series on “gifts,” i.e. joy, peace, hope and love. Now, every one of us has been to sermons where we can swear the pastor followed us around all week, noted everything we did and then went home Saturday night and wrote a sermon that was specifically for us. I have to tell you, every Sunday in December felt that way for Stacee and me. The one that caused me to start looking over my shoulder was the sermon on hope. That was absolutely what we needed to hear exactly when we needed to hear it. One of the things that really stuck out was the comparison the pastor made between what the world or society thinks of as hope and what God thinks of as hope. In his sermon, he said:
From society’s perspective, hope is: “wishing for something with an expectation of fulfillment.” God’s hope is defined a little differently: “A strong and confident expectation – one which indicates a certainty that the expectation will not disappoint.”
Notice the main difference in the two. In society’s definition, “there are a couple of unknowns with it. First, it’s a wish – which implies we don’t have a lot of control over the outcome. Like flipping a coin…heads or tails, could go either way. I could succeed or fail; hope fulfilled could either be satisfying, or could leave me empty.” In God’s definition there is no emptiness, no disappointment. It is a certain hope, an anchor that holds us firm in the tide of war:
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. – Hebrews 6:18-20a
No matter how calamitous things seem, there is always hope. God’s hope, and it is our faith in Him that gives us that hope. In order for faith and hope to be effective, they must be used together. They are after all, both eternal (1 Cor 13:13), and one does come out of the other: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). Notice how faith, hope and certainty all play together? When we grab a hold of both of them, we will persevere in any battle we fight. The battle won’t always be pretty. We’ll get dirty, we may even fall, but we will be caught and carried to victory.
Homecoming
When the end of the aforementioned deployment drew near, there was tremendous excitement on board my ship. Everyone was counting the days until we pulled into port. One crewman had a timer set up that counted down, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and even seconds! Yes, it was a thrilling time indeed. However, for those of us with families, excitement was tempered with a little bit of trepidation.
How would our families react to us coming home? Sure they would be excited too, but what about little kids who could barely remember “dad.” My own daughter, who broke my heart when she cried “Dad, I want to come with you!!” as I crossed the brow the final time before we pulled away from the pier, only knew me as a concept of some man who had been here at one time.
My oldest son, who was just a baby at the time (and slept the whole morning of our departure), very likely didn’t even know he had a “father.” Even my wife, my best friend, and my entire world was a little cautious on my return. Don’t get me wrong, as I was waiting to go ashore the anticipation was overwhelming. When I actually left the ship and saw my family on the pier my heart overflowed with joy. I could barely contain it!
When the hugging was over, introductions made to shipmates and we were back at home, there were many adjustments to be made. My daughter was halfway through her first year of schooling. My baby boy, who was barely two months old when I left was now rolling around the floor and eating solid food! Even my wife and I had to take some special time away together to get reacquainted.
Spiritual deployments are no different. When the battle is over, and the lessons are learned, we must take the time to get reacquainted with our first love. The joy at having made it through another battle will overflow our hearts as will gratitude to our Father for carrying us through. We must, then, take some special time with our Lord getting to know Him all over again. Sometimes, God just wants to be our Friend.
In Jesus’ message to the Ephesians he commends them for their perseverance. They fought some tough battles and won. When the battles were over however, there was no “adjustment period” with Christ:
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. – Revelation 2:2-4
If, after being gone six months, I had left the ship, given my wife a peck on the cheek and asked her “what’s for dinner?” while heading straight to the car, she was would have likely left me right there on the pier. Can you even imagine doing that to someone you hold dear? Now imagine doing that to Christ, the General of generals, our Lord and Protector.
It almost seems harsh, doesn’t it?
We have to be careful that we do not forget Christ, or what He has done for us. More than our Savior, more than our Protector, He carries us when we cannot carry ourselves. If not for Christ, none of us would make it through some of the battles we fight. Therefore, when all is said and done, when the battle is over and the victory celebration has wound down, take a few moments and get to know your “first love.”
Conclusion
Battles are tough. Nobody likes rolling around in the cold, wet mud, being shot at, facing situations seemingly more harsh then anyone should ever have to face. The Bible prepares us for these battles though. It warns us such skirmishing will occur, tells us how to protect ourselves, what tools to use, and even what tactics the enemy will use! The Bible also tells us how to fight, when to fight and when to let God fight for us. More than any of that, I believe the Bible tells us what do when the hostilities have ceased.
First, we should praise God for our survival; thank Him for carrying us through. While doing so, we should seek out our own “lessons learned.” How did we carry ourselves during the struggle? What did we do that is commendable? What did we do that we shouldn’t have? There is a lesson to be learned in every battle we face. If we do not learn it, we run the risk of repeating that battle.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, we need to take some special time to get to know God all over again. While fighting and skirmishing, it can be easy to forget much of what He has taught us over the years. Therefore in addition to looking into what can be learned from the experience, we need to learn to experience God. Eventually we will win the war, but until then we need to keep plugging along one battle at a time. By learning from what we’ve been through, and getting closer to our Father we will be better equipped and more prepared for the next battle life throws at us.
THE TRUE STORY
In 1956, five missionaries dared to reach the most savage tribe in history. They were the first to have friendly contact with a notoriously violent group of indigenous people. But their excitement quickly turned to fear when the tribe attacked them with spears and all five were killed. Soon after the spearing, a wife of one of the slain men, and sister of another, went to live
with the tribe who killed their loved ones. Within two years, the tribal homicide rate dropped more than 90 percent.
This story was made famous by LIFE magazine and the book Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot. Many people are familiar with the story of the missionaries, but no one has heard the rest of the story, from the perspective of the tribe, until now.
THE FILM
End of the Spear follows this remarkable true story through the life journeys of two people. Mincayani, a Waodani warrior who led the raid that killed the missionaries, and Steve Saint, the son of the missionary Mincayani killed.
Mincayani grew up knowing he must spear and live or be speared and die. His isolated stone-age tribe struggles to survive the revenge spearings that threaten to wipe out his family completely. Their encounter with the five missionaries propels the tribe down an extraordinary path that culminates in them not only departing from violence, but caring for the enemy tribe they once raided.
Every Tribe Entertainment was created to produce motion picture experiences that delight and inspire a broad international audience with true stories. ETE selects stories from the documentaries made by Bearing Fruit Communications that unquestionably inspire the human soul, and translates them into memorable motion picture experiences.
MESSAGE FROM TRIBE ENTERTAINMENT FOUNDER
The story was born in the Waodani tribe in Ecuador, acted by the Embera tribe in Panama, and is now being brought to theaters by the northern tribes who help “make contact” with this movie in theaters. The vision of the theatrical motion picture “End of the Spear” is to engage our culture with entertainment that creates a hunger to go deeper into the truth of the story.
When people have a common emotional experience around a story they share, it creates a connection between them. Working together, the two films allow the believer and non-believer to have safe and meaningful dialogue about a story that has emotional interest and significance to them both. Having experienced the documentary, the believer is able to bring the non-believer deeper into the truth of the story.
We hope that these two films provide you with tools to make contact with your community. We hope that by making “End of the Spear” number one at the box office during opening weekend January 20th, we can all make contact with our culture, and affect the content of motion pictures in the years to come.
Respectfully,
Mart Green
CEO and Founder, Every Tribe Entertainment
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit http://www.endofthespear.com/.
One Body Ministries is pleased to announce a brand new chat room! It is a place where Christians can gather for some clean, friendly chatting. Visit