December 12, 2011

Ultimate Fighter

A few days ago a mugger walked up to a car with a gun and told his intended victim to give him everything he had. The victim refused and was ordered out of the car. In spite of the gun, the would-be-crook (5' 5", 148 lbs) got the tar beat out of him by the victim…an Ultimate Fighter (6’, 250 lbs). I have to confess I love this story and I laughed out loud when I saw the accompanying police photo of a battered and bruised mugger. On the spiritual level, can’t you just picture Satan thinking we are a wimpy victim, but in reality we’re an Ultimate Fighter?

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I think I’ll work on imagining just that picture. Seeing it through Satan’s eyes might be appropriate; maybe something like: a beholding of a gnat square in the middle of the visual field. A gnat having not necessarily a cocky expression, nor a smug one, nor a frightful one, just a sensible, somehow comfortable expression. An expression that drives Satan wild with rage. An expression of just not paying much mind to him. And yet, there the gnat is, tiny in Satan’s eyesight. And the ridges of his fingerprints grate against each other as he grinds his thumb into his fingers, imagining the gnat between them, fiercely irritated that he must stop at just the thought of it. For behind the gnat, consuming nearly all of Satan’s visual field is the derisively grinning face of Jesus with eyes peering past the gnat into his, prompting steel curtains against the morbid desires of his heart as they pound against his own degenerate glare. “Maybe a little shove here, a poke there, sometimes even a bloody nose,” a glint in Jesus’ eye allows, “but ruin is out of the question! A little tripping I’ll tolerate, but a headlong casting isn’t going to happen. He’s my gnat! You can toy with him. But it is I how does business with him.”
-----I think you remember Bro. Erle Heald (I think that’s how he spelled his name) of Intermountain Bible College. He told a story to us in his Revelation class that I am sure has gotten around much. You might have heard it, but regardless, here it is again.
-----He picked up a hitchhiker who eventually pulled a gun on him and insisted he stop and surrender his car. Now Bro. Heald wasn’t the belligerent type. Nor was he the milquetoast who would have submitted smiling. And if he had fear, he didn’t think it useful to let it show. He was always quick to be succinctly matter of fact in his responses. And those responses always made very good sense, because he was just so very sensible. He said he simply began pressing that accelerator pedal and scooting along faster and faster as his assailant became more insistent and obviously nervous. Finally when they were doing well over seventy miles an hour (a good pace in the 1960’s) he calmly announced, “I’ve lived more life than you and have less left than you. And I know Jesus Christ and where I’m going when I die. So I’m just going to miss that curve up ahead unless you role down your window and throw out your gun.” Well, after the deal was settled it was Bro. Heald’s turn to do the talking, which was mostly about Jesus.
-----It pays to keep aware of everything real. And there is nothing more real than Jesus at our back starring down the belligerent Destroyer.

Love you all,
Steve Corey