The Shield part 3
Captain America throws his mighty shield. That's the part of his old school theme song that I remember. It stuck with me through the years. In fact, I can remember staying home from school one day, "sick," and watching a live action Captain America movie on TV. Now, apparently it's pretty terrible. For a kid... man, it was awesome. My hero right there in living color. Things like that stick with you. So when we are talking about God--about LOVE--as our shield... if we're throwing our shield in order to defeat our enemies... it's probably more like what Abraham Lincoln said about destroying our enemies by making them our friends. That's what I think Paul was writing about in Romans 12:20, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shal heap coals of fire on his head." I don't think heaping fiery coals onto people's heads is meant to hurt them. Or burn them in a punitive way. I think we really need to evaluate our stance on "punishment." Especially when we build a doctrine on a God who is love but also punishes people with eternal torment. Something there doesn't strike me quite right. But my focus for today is on throwing our shield--which, again, is love. Loving the hell out of people. Heaping coals of fire onto people's heads in order to melt their hearts. If you're attacking someone, I think you have your priorities screwed up. I think it's ok to defend yourself, or, even better, to let God defend you. But I don't think it's ok to attack people. Live and let live. Be who you are and let people be who they are. Draw a line that it's not ok for people to cross. Set boundaries. But it's not your job to make anybody else be anything else. It's not your job to change people. I always say it like this: It IS my job to chasten and correct my son. But that's not punishment. That's not me attacking him. That's me teaching him. Training him up in the way he should go. Helping him to learn and grow so that he can be his own person and live his own life. I don't know why some people feel the need to control everything and everybody. I have enough on my plate just getting myself from the start of the day to the end of the day. I've made it my policy that if there's something I can't accept... I just stay away from it. If I'm throwing my shield, it's because I have what you need. And I'll give you what I've got. That's what love is--giving everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. And understanding that you have people who know they are your friends... and people that don't know it yet. Which is to say: Love everybody. Let love protect you by giving it away to everybody you come into contact with. You don't necessarily have to hide from people. You can just love them. And, yes, sometimes you need to love people from a distance. Those boundaries we mentioned. But it's all about love. Letting your heavenly Father love the hell out of you and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people you come into contact with. That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. And we have the tools we need to experience it to the fullest!