Over the last two weekends, I’ve seen two great
films -- Unbroken and American Sniper. Regarding WWII and Unbroken, I am grateful for those men that took up arms in defense
of our nation and our way of life. Admiral Chester Nimitz, describing the courage
displayed by US Marines on the island of Iwo Jima declared, “uncommon valor was
a common virtue." What a tremendous
testimony to the tenacity of those men. They
were one of the Greatest Generations.
Turn now to the
current war, formerly known as the Global War on Terror by
our last real leader, and referred to now as an overseas contingency operation,
or workplace violence (if you are killed by a terrorist at Fort Hood), by our
current president. Regardless of what it’s called, another
generation of the greatest Americans, guys like Staff Sergeant Salvatore A.
Giunta, Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry, and Sergeant
Dakota Meyer, to name just a few, have risen up to follow in
their forefather’s footsteps.
Another one of the post-9-11 generation
heroes is Chris Kyle, the American Sniper. A scene in the
film depicted young Chris at the family dinner table. His
brother had been involved in a bullying incident at school that day. Their father tells his two young sons an
allegory about prey, predators, and protectors. “There are three types of people in this
world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs,” their Dad starts. “Some people prefer to
believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their
doorstep, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep.”
He goes on with
the lesson, “Then you’ve got predators -- who use violence to prey on the weak.
They’re the wolves. And then there are those blessed with the gift of
aggression, an overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare
breed who lives to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdogs.”
While the movie
reminds us Chris Kyle was clearly a sheepdog extraordinaire, it also portrays him
as a man who bore the emotional scars of traumatic stress and the attendant
challenges of reintegrating into civility and home life. Virtually every veteran of Enduring and Iraqi
Freedom could relate to the great degree of difficulty in readjusting from a
protracted state of hyper vigilance to a land of the free and the home of the
over indulgent. A nation of seemingly indifferent
and unconcerned; in spite of the occasional “thanks for your service” – ostensibly
oblivious to the ongoing dangers still being faced by their brothers that they
have left behind in theater. Whether this allegory was actually shared by
Mr. Kyle with his sons is immaterial – the lesson was learned and Chris lived
it out accordingly.
This reminded me of what Jesus said 2,000 years earlier, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” You can see that Jesus said there is an enemy that even a sniper’s scope cannot discern. He said there is a ravenous wolf that dresses like a sheep, which can only be recognized by the fruit they produce.
My hunch on what the fruit of that sheep-dressed wolf might sound like if he were speaking at a prayer breakfast:
“ISIS, you’ve been busy beheading and burning hostages, raping and maiming, don’t worry, you’re in good company – after all those crappy Christians did it too.”
Source: https://miscellany101.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/sheep_clothing.jpg |
This column was published in the 11 FEB 2015 Upson Beacon.
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How refreshing, in contrast to the "high horse" language of a certain prayer-breakfast speaker, is the testimony a particular warrior mentioned above (in UNBROKEN) who found the truest dimension of freedom in his surrender to Christ following his 47-day ordeal on the raft (dodging sharks and bullets) and the two horrific years in the Japanese prison camp. He came home to find that the nightmares of rage strangled him with an internal prison camp that he could not escape... until he met the Lord Jesus Christ. The movie UNBROKEN takes you up to chapter 33 in the book by the same title. I highly recommend reading the final chapters of that book authored by Laura Hillenbrand which tells the REST of the story. To God be the glory. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
ReplyDeleteAmen Brother David. The "Unbroken" in the first paragraph has a link to a great video that also provides "the rest of the story" on Louis Zamperini.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT7b_bK4DpI