Okay, so I love playing ultimate frisbee. Probably one of my favorite parts is when the frisbee is thrown off to the other team. Usually, the throwing team will yell, "ULTIMATE!!", and the frisbee is thrown, causing everyone to run and collide with eachother wherever the frisbee lands. It's like two groups running into battle. It's awesome.
Well, because of vocal nodules, I deciding yelling "ultimate" probably wasn't the best option for me. So I opted for the "Xena yell." It got the job done, and kinda scared the other team in the process. And it sounded pretty cool haha.
But having a princess warrior's yell doesn't mean I consider myself a warrior princess. On the contrary, I often see myself more as a damsel in distress, getting into trouble, and then waiting for prince charming to come and rescue me from the world, from sin, and from myself. Pathetic, huh?
I've found this dichotomy of being a damsel and a warrior a lot in the Bible. We're called to follow the Lord, and then the go in for Him as His ambassadors. More recently, I found these two personalities while reading Zechariah.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you...
...Then the Lord will appear over them
And His arrow will go forth like Lightening;
And the Lord God will blow the trumpet,
And will march in the storm winds of the south.
The Lord of hosts will defend them...
...And the Lord their God will save them in that day
as the flock of His people;
For they are as the stones of a crown,
Sparkling in His land." (Zechariah 9: 9, 14-15a, 16)
So here is the Lord appearing as a King, a warrior, to rescue His people who are as precious as the crown jewels. But then, in the next chapter, there seems to be a shift...
"My anger is kindled against the shepherds (false prophets),
And I will punish the male goats;
For the lord of hosts has visted His flock, the house of Judah,
And will make them like His majestic horse in battle.
From them will come the cornerstone,
From them the tent peg,
From them the bow of battle,
From them every ruler, all of them together.
They will be as mighty men,
Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle;
And they will fight, for the Lord will be with them;
And the riders on horses will be put to shame.
I will strengthen the house of Judah,
And I will save the house of Joseph,
And I will bring them back,
Because I have had compassion on them;
And they will be as though I had not rejected them,
For I am the Lord their God and I will answer them."
(Zechariah 10:3-6)
I amazed me that the people who needed to be saved by the Lord would then be strengthened and transformed into mighty men to fight FOR the Lord, and destroy the enemies that searched to destroy them.
I often see the Lord as my warrior, but I rarely see myeslf as anything more than the lost adulterous sheep needing rescued. But the Bible says that we are continually being transformed into His likeness, so why not into a warrior as well? Maybe that is a promise I need to claim for myself: that just as the Lord rescues and fights for me, so I am strengthened to fight for Him.
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
By the way, Xena Warrior Princess was one of my favorite TV shows as a kid. Too bad they had to make it all weird in the end...*sigh*
No comments:
Post a Comment