So now we’ve arrived at Episode 4 based on the movie “We Were Soldiers”. Episode 4 is The New Hope, right? Wait…wrong movie. Anyway, I want to mention 2 scenes from “We Were Soldiers” to start things off. When the first helicopters land on the battlefield, the American soldiers immediately see enemy soldiers all over. The fighting starts to secure the area. One American squad leader takes off running after an enemy scout to try and catch him. The scout just keeps running farther away. The squad leader keeps yelling to his squad to catch the scout. The whole squad is running and chasing. Pow! Then it’s ambush. Squad leader dies. Several soldiers die. They’re cut off from the rest, and it’s just really bad all the way around. The next scene is from later in the movie. The enemy is trying to overpower the Americans with sheer numbers and getting in really close. The enemy has decided that American artillery is extremely effective, so they’ll get so close to the Americans that it can’t be used. The enemy is breaking the American perimeter along the entire line, and Mel Gibson orders “Broken Arrow” immediately summoning all available air support. The little radio guy is calling out coordinates, and the planes are dropping napalm and everything. But then he calls out a wrong coordinate and a napalm bomb gets dropped on some Americans. Mel tells him to shake it off, and keep the air support coming. He reassured the guy that he didn’t have time to dwell on the mistake…if he lets that one mistake freeze him, then they would all die.
What’s the common thread? One person makes one poor choice, a mistake, maybe even just an accident…trying to do good, but just slipped up and all sorts of extra dominoes start falling. And once the mistakes are made…the accidents happen…you can’t take them back. Once they’re made, they’re made and the consequences will be what they are. And, yeah, sometimes you end up being the one paying the consequences for someone else’s mistake. You were over here minding your own business. Blam! Here’s some junk to deal with. Sometimes it’s little things like things at work. Sometimes it’s big things…car accidents…medical mishaps…fluke situations…and you’re not cleaning up a hassle at work, you’re piecing together life after death. But how long do we stand there complaining about what got us here instead of just dealing with it and moving forward? To point some generic fingers, there’s a guy in my office that will call me over to see something quirky with how our program is behaving. “See, when I do this, it does this…and when I do that, it does that. Have you ever seen it do that?” Well, no – but apparently this one is doing it, so I suggest not doing that. “Well that’s just weird! When I do this, it does this…and when I do that, it does that.” And instead of just grabbing the bull by his proverbial horns and just avoiding the “when I do that it does that” scenario, he’ll go back and forth between the two probably a dozen times just griping that it happens every time it happens.
We’re given freedom from our past in Jesus. The mistakes of our past are remembered no more. Does that mean that in the near-term of our human existence that we won’t feel grief or anger or confusion – or a combination all three and then some extras just for good measure – as we sort through putting the pieces back together? Of course not! And it would be silly to realistically expect someone to do that…especially if it’s dealing with a death – or the breaking of trust between husband and wife – or best friends. On a semi-tangental (another made up word, sorry) side note, in “Revenge of the Sith” Yoda (the little green used-to-be puppet, who is now computer animated) tells Anakin (Darth Vader to be) when discussing death of someone close to rejoice with those that have become one with the Force. ”Mourn them do not. Miss them do not.” And sometimes as Christians we’re kind of trained into thinking that we’re doing something wrong when we selfishly wish that our loved ones were still here. Jesus wept. It’s ok to miss someone. But back to the larger, central point, it’s not an issue of making or someone else making mistakes, it’s moving forward now that they’re made.
In the Lion King, Rafiki is the little witch doctor monkey…I’ve always called him “the drunk monkey” because of his odd behavior and crazy cackling. But when Rafiki comes to Simba (who has run away after blaming himself for his father’s death) to tell him that it’s time to be the king he should be. Simba brings up allllll of the stuff that went wrong before. And Rafiki responds by cracking Simba across the head with his stick. Simba aks, “What did you do that for?!” And what does Rafiki say? “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.” It doesn’t matter how we got here. Here is where we are. This is the situation we have to deal with. I think it sounds vaguely familiar to John 21.
Peter has spent 3 years following Jesus around the area. “Jesus, if that’s you walking on the water, call me out there, because I want to do whatever you do!” “Oh yeah!! Trying to arrest MY Jesus? I’ll just hack off your ear!” “I’d NEVER deny you, Jesus!” Before the rooster crows, you’ll deny me three times. “Nuh-uh! No, I won’t!” Then he did. Three times. Just like Jesus told him he would.
Judas was so overcome with guilt for his betrayal that he tried to give the silver back, but they wouldn’t take it. So instead, he bought a field and hung himself on it. Peter probably didn’t feel much better. After three years, and all the healings and witnessing and walking on water and “Nuh-uh! I’d never deny you”ing…he denied Jesus anyway. He did it even though he was warned that he would do it. (and somehow we think our witnessing for Jesus will always be perfect?) But what happened after? In John 21 Jesus comes back to Peter after the resurrection. I can only imagine (to borrow a line) what Peter felt. I mean, what do you do? See Him and throw your arms around Him thankful He lived like He said He would? Do you feel the immediate guilt of denying Him? I say “immediate”, I would have beating myself up over it from the time it happened until I saw Him again. Are you scared that He’s going to be mad that you denied Him? 21:7 tells us that Peter jumped out of the boat to swim to shore to see Jesus…I guess that should be our reaction, too. But did Jesus brow-beat Peter? Pull a Fred Sanford on him? “You big dummy! I told you that you’d deny me!” Nope. Didn’t even mention it all…and neither did Peter. Jesus just told him, “If you love me, feed my sheep”. Peter, we are where we are. So let’s start from here and go where we go.
Most of us know 1Peter 5:7 that says the devil is a roaring lion seeking to devour. (And to quote the President) “Let’s be clear about one thing.” The devil will use bigger, more elaborate traps that using an enemy scout to lead you to an ambush. Be on your guard. And just like the separated squad had Mel to come save them, we have Jesus. But even on your best guard, you’re going to have to deal with a mistake.
Listen for the Whisper that tells you that sometimes we have to deal with a mess. Sometimes it’s a big mess that had nothing to do with us. And yes, there will be a time to be angry and disappointed and sorrowful and regretful and all that. Then we need to pull ourselves together and get on with the “dealing with it” part of it. Jesus didn’t beat Peter up over his one mistake, and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up either. Or others. I know some mistakes are harder to get over than others…especially when you’ve been dragged sideways into dealing with one because of something stupid that someone else did. But to be effective Christians, we have to practice forgiveness, and yes that includes forgiving ourselves. Like the radio operator with the mistaken coordinates, sometimes things go badly wrong…but we have to shake it off as best we can and get back to making things right. It’s not our mistakes that define us as Christians. It’s how we move forward after them that does.
~Dwayne
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