Sunday, November 3, 2013

Groomsmen Part 3: Why I hate Nativity Scenes and Love Wes Allen

It’s officially November, and I’m officially dreaming about Christmas time.

On the way home from our most recent contest at Kentucky Wesleyan, I was jamming to the ipod on shuffle. Randomly (or not so randomly depending on your personal beliefs), a teaching from John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart came on. The teaching was specifically on spiritual warfare and how there is a lot more going on in our lives than we care to believe. He uses an example from Christmas, and talks about nativity scenes.

“All nativity scenes are typically very similar. The same characters tend to appear in each one. Shepherds, wisemen, a few barnyard animals. Of course there is Mary and Joseph, adoring the new born baby Jesus. And a few scenes will include an angel or two, but that is as far as the spiritual realm is represented. The characters all have a very warm, sweet, pastoral feel to them. And while this is very true, it is also very deceiving. Deceiving because this is not a full representation of what is really going on. For that, you must turn to Revelation 12.” (Wild at Heart Audio, The Enemy)

“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.  Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.  Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter…..Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” (Revelation 12:1-5, 7-9)

Philip Yancey calls the birth of Christ, “The great invasion…a daring raid by the ruler of the forces of good into the universe’s seat of evil.” To grasp the other half of the picture of Christ’s birth, it would be appropriate for you to watch the initial invasion scenes from Saving Private Ryan. The parallels between Saving Private Ryan and the Gospel are stunning. A massive invasion is launched, and a daring rescue mission for the safety of one lost man behind enemy lines. God invades with his son Jesus, and personally sends both Jesus and an intimate band of angels to rescue you. You are private Ryan in the movie. And like Tom Hanks and his troops, Jesus will stop at nothing to bring you home safely.

Now back to Revelation.

The child is born, the woman escapes, and the story continues:

“Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspringthose who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17)

“Behind the world, and the flesh is an even more deadly enemy.. one we rarely speak of, and one we are even less ready to resist, the devil himself...this is where we live now...on the front lines of a fierce spiritual war.” (Wild at Heart Audio, The Enemy)

And thus, I hate nativity scenes. They are soft, like most of our sacred and holy ‘Christian’ culture.

Now I know, it all seems so dramatic, so ultra spiritual and weird. But if you look at the scriptures, warnings about the Enemy are everywhere. Even the old Saint Paul knew how serious spiritual warfare was, he understood that if we are to walk with God in a genuine way and be the men and women we were created to be, we must engage in the spiritual war raging around us. We must fight. Period.

Bringing it a bit closer to home, God began to speak to me about the game I had just finished playing. We beat Kentucky Wesleyan 35-27. We should have scored a lot more points, and I imagine the defense feels that they could have held our opponent to fewer points. The problem was, our team as a whole, was lulled to sleep. We forgot that on Saturdays, it really makes no difference who lines up across from us. We forgot that no matter who our opponent is, no matter what venue and atmosphere we play in, the context for our game is war. And if your mind is not ready for a fight, you will swiftly get your ass kicked. We walked out onto the Kentucky Wesleyan field and it was dead quiet. Saying there was no energy or buzz from the stands would be an understatement.

To make matters worse, we got up by quite a few points early. This early ‘success’ further progressed the lulling to sleep of our team. We had officially forgotten that we were in a fight.

Now to why I love Wes Allen. Now to those pieces of Jesus pumping through Wesley’s veins that so often speak to my heart.  Wes is a soldier, literally. He is going into the Marines after school, and he will make one wild warrior. He is one of the few men in my life that remind me that I am at war, that there are some things in life worth fighting for, and I love that about him. We worked together for a majority of this past summer, and we formed a strong bond as we shared our common love of epic movies, (Gladiator Braveheart We Were Soldiers, to name a few) and Eminem’s lyrics. Often times we would pass the time at work jamming to Eminem, or quoting our favorite movie lines. But my favorite way to pass the time at work with Wes, was looking up quotes from the Marines or other branches of our military. So much wisdom and strength in the quotes of men who have led our countries warriors into the most hostile spots in the world.  Any quote concerning war would do for us. Here’s a few of our favorites:

We thrive on adversity- Navy Seals
Every plans a good one until the first shots are fired – US Marines
A man once told me that death smiles at all of us, all a man do is smile back – Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator
We are never out of the fight – Navy Seals
Only the dead have seen the end of war. – Plato

As Wes and I chatted in the locker room post game, after we narrowly escaped with a victory, we revisited the quote about never being out the fight. “We’re never out of the fight. But that’s the same for the other guys. We forgot that they were never out of the fight either.”

Yes. We did forget Wesley. The Father brought this to my attention on the bus ride home, began fathering me yet again through the game of football. How often do I personally forget that I live in a world at war? How often do I live as though everything is hunky dory in the land of butterflies and rainbows? When in reality, I am in a fight. Satan is enraged at me, hates me. Wants to devour me, wants to steal my joy, kill my heart, and destroy my life. (Click these cool things >>> John 10:10 and 1 Peter 5:8)

We can’t afford to forget that we are at war. We can’t turn the other cheek to where we find ourselves. You can’t win a fight you don’t think exists. Which is why this is Satan's greatest strategy-Lull us to sleep and make us believe that he simply doesn't exist. It’s a subtle assault on humanity, and it’s dreadfully effective. If we believe we are not in a fight, we will swiftly get our asses kicked in this war. I'd venture to say that a majority of the brokenness and pain in your own life is connected to you forgetting, or not knowing, that Satan is assaulting you every freaking day. As Plato said, only the dead have seen the end of war. War is simply where we are in the story. We must accept it, believe it, embrace it, and as men and women of God,  fight with every fiber in our body.

Maybe you have turned down the fight for all your life, refused to accept the fact that Satan is literally waging war against your soul. Maybe you are more than slightly discouraged that you have not jumped in, and fought the evil one. Maybe you feel like its too late, that Satan has gained too much ground on your life for a turnaround.

I would be quick to remind you, that you my friend are never out of the fight. It’s never too late.

We are never out of the fight, and we thrive on adversity.  

I dare the dudes reading this that call themselves Christians to start praying this prayer once a day. It will take about 10 minutes, and it would be a good start in fighting the good fight. It will bring you near to Gods heart, and will teach you how to embrace your role in the war we find ourselves in. 

Fight for your lives. Nothing good has ever come without a fight. Life to the fullest, a life full of Joy and intimacy with God is worth it. But you must fight for it.


And for the love of God someone add a machine gun or something more violent to a nativity scene this year.