A funny thing happens when we feel our position of conviction and even influence is put under fire. We throw heaps of coals back at the arsonist rather than looking to put the fire out.
We have been receiving a handful of pamphlets in the mail, as I am sure you have as well, of local politicians vying for our vote in less than one months time. In part I have seen what the candidate is in favor of by reading through the mailer, but for the greater part, I find an attack on the contending opponent. My understanding of the politician looking to secure my ally ship is hoping to obtain that trust not by who they are, but by who they are not, and that only in light of the rubbish of their opposition. Whether or not I feel confident in them and what they will bring to the table for our local government, on behalf of my values and ideology, is only of partial consequence. A vote in response to disgust for the opposition is just as acceptable, if not even just as ideal.
“Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threatener and outface the brow
Of bragging horror”
King John, William Shakespeare, 1595
You have no doubt heard the expression before, to fight fire with fire. Shakespeare did not quite coin the phrase, but his words are reminiscent of an ancient human nature, and a foreshadowing of the phrase to come.
We use what is an extreme source of battle, forging it to become our own personal weapon on any occasion that suits us.
Perhaps when we are threatened, the best way to protect ourself is to use that which has been used against us, and in some cases, this would seem like common sense. There is an old book from when I was a child, accompanied by a many wonderful other books that my parents brought with them from New York on one of their trips to see us, titled The White Faced Pony. A simple tale of a young Native American boy who lost his people, only to ultimately find his way as a chief upon following the gift that Mother Nature provided to him, a white faced pony. As a girl I was always fascinated by the way of life of indigenous people as told in museums and in the classroom, and mildly obsessed with horses, and so the book seemed a perfect fit. At one point in the story, the chief brought the boy into his tent and asked him to fight in the battle against enemies looking to keep them from hunting a nearby herd of buffalo. Their entire tribes survival was at hand, for if they were not free to hunt, they would starve in the winter months ahead. Fighting was a matter of survival. To not fight would be to die.
Yet we have created battles where our lives are not the thing at stake. Only instead our reputation. Something which we will fight for willingly at the grave expense of another. These are not survival tactics.
Rather these are tactics used by kings inlaid with greed and self. These are tactics used to conquer for no other purpose than to come out ahead.
Although let’s not be so quick to relegate the anecdote of fighting fire with fire to kings of old and politicians of today. Look at your news feed and you will discover all too quickly that this is the face of self preservation. In order to project what we are about, we find ourselves belittling any and all that are not.
A gossip, a facebook rant, a ploy for that promotion, a prodding into how things are at your old job, or how life is going for your X, all built on ensuring that the opposition looks poor so that we might appear radiant.
I am a follower of Jesus. This writing couldn’t even begin to express to you why. He is breathtakingly beautiful in all respects. Because of that, I have no need to elevate who he is, along with my reasoning for trusting every word out of his mouth, by illuminating what he is not. All that he is not simply falls away and has no place in the conversation. His good is so good that it does not need to be highlighted by opposition. That seems to occur naturally regardless. When you truly understand what Jesus was all about, it stands in deep contrast to what the world has normalized, and you find yourself rather free in the extreme of what he offers as it compares to all that is broken.
I do not hinge my belief system on what Jesus is not, or otherwise I could follow a great many other number of fashioned gods. Yet I see people that claim him as their own who use ideology opposing him as fuel for their reason for faith. As though knowing all that he is was not enough.
Whether in politics, or faith, or personal accolades, we have chosen our weapon, to such an extent that we no longer even need fire to start a fire. The embers are already burning. The damage irreversible. We simply need our voices to keep blowing a strong wind.
EXPOSITION: Would you be honest with yourself here and discern if perhaps the ways we have seen kings and politicians advance is the same way you have protected yourself, your belief, system your ideology, etc?
RISE: Consider letting what you are about be less about condoning what your are not, or the people who are not in accord with you. Let your ideology stand on its own, and if you find that it hinges on opposition, then perhaps your “good” is not as good as you believed it to be.
DENOUEMENT: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – Jesus