I can still remember in vivid clarity the “live fire” course in basic training. This happens at the end of basic training and simulates the overwhelming sounds and sights of a battlefield at night. You walk down a long trail and stand silently in single file. Boredom, the great constant in the Army, starts to set in. Then, without warning, a flare goes up. You are told to move and the explosions start. You are hearded into a trench. In groups of about eight you go to the front edge of the trench and at the command you go up and over. It’s then that the surreal flashes and explosions – like a concert of chaos - envelope you. You are moving through the obstacles. It’s hard to think. There is so much going on all around you that you have to force yourself to stay on your line. Move, go to cover, move over, move under, move around, move…until you get the last twenty-five yards or so where you fix bannets, charge, strike the target, and step off the field confused, exhausted, overwhelmed, and hoping that you never have to do that for real.
What I remember most clearly is the Drill Sergent going down the line reminding us of the dangers of actually getting hurt or killed if we get disoriented and panic. I remember him saying over and over, “Movement is life, soldiers. If you stop, you die. Shoot, move, and communicate! Find cover but don’t stay there. Get to your objective. Keep formation, keep your heads, and MOVE!” When the wall of explosions and sound hit you out of the trench, you stop thinking. All I remembered was, “Move!”
I’ve been thinking about movement a lot these days. Lungs filling with air and exhaling…movement. Heart contracting and expanding…movement. Blood flowing….movement. Impulses traveling along neurons and across synapsi…movement. Kidney stones leaving the body…movement.
I thought, especially while I was sitting around healing and eventually getting grumpy and irritable and how much I rely on exercise to deal with stress and keep equalibrium and a sense of peace – healthy movement.
I look at the life of the church and think about it. Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit immediately sends him to wilderness - movement. Jesus final command in Matthew is “Go and make disciples…” – movement. The Holy Spirit coming like a mighty rushing wind – movement. I think about growing in maturity – movement. I think about struggling with sin and short-comings – movement. I think about getting closer to people in community – movement. I think about actually getting to know people in the community as individuals and friends – movement.
I can hear the “wait a minute” in my own head – movement is only part of the story. You have to rest and recover or you break down.
This is true. If you have only rest (being sedentary) you break down. If you have only movement you break down. But order is important here. Rest is recovery, repair, strength and endurance only after exertion. You must have both. But the strength and growth are dependent upon the movement.
It makes me examine my life. Am I moving, growing, maturing, struggling with the right things, expending physical energy (not just mental or “spiritual” energy), being involved? If I am moving am I running around like a chicken with my head cut off (unfocused, questing without a goal or purpose), or am I deliberately doing the things that I know bring growth (Word, prayer, community)? Is it all internal (study, prayer, church ministry), or is it external (mercy, forgiveness, hospitality, generosity, outside the church)?
If the “live fire course” is an applicable metaphor for our spiritual warfare, then I have to ask am I rightly related to those I moving over the field with? Am I actually achieving an objective or just hanging back in confusion? Are we working together? Do I know real “cover and concealment” from a simple shield that the “fiery darts of the evil one” can easily pass through? When the time comes to break into the open field and charge with one of two options - life or death – am I willing?
For my part, many of these questions can’t be answered in the positive. I want them to be. I want my Christian life to be the same as a controlled “live fire” course and not an actual battle. I don’t want to get actually injured or actually suffer or actually die (physically or figuratively in my “death to self”) in the cause of Christ.
Movement in the life with Christ is tricky. It isn’t just activity, although that can be good. It’s exertion in obedience. It’s strain and pain and endurance that then comes with rest which actually heals and brings strength. This means the struggle with character. It means the pain of recognizing and owning short-comings, compromises, preferences, self and selfishness. It isn’t just suddenly and with relative ease being “like Jesus.” Why? Because movement is life. Growing, being actually in transformation (communally and personally) is what the Lord is doing.
A sedentary spiritual life is complacency. It is when we spend more time getting irritated by issues of style and preference than sin, compromising love of God and others in the name of peace or ease, having excuses for not doing the things the Lord puts before us.
Grumbling, complaining, avoiding, and hiding from others feels like movement because our hearts beat fast and we get out of breath in our irritation. But it’s not real movement. It’s more like angina or asthma or something where the symptoms feel similar to exercise, but the cause is radically different.
Am I moving? Am I part of a movement? Am I actually doing the right movements for the right reasons? Am I resting to grow stronger or resting a lot and shuffling around to break up periods of resting (a spiritual couch potato)?
Gracious, heavenly Father;
Speak to us. Guide us into faith, hope, and love. Keep us from delusions, the lies of culture, and the compromises of the deceiver. We would be healthy athletes in the cause of Christ. Good soldiers in the cause of love and peace. Committed warriors against injustice, oppression, neglect, and racism – especially our own.
Keep us from the busyness that we substitute for real movement, and from the self-serving shuffling about that is merely a minor interruption in our routine and that actually fuels our ability to more greatly endure our narcissistic obsessions.
Keep us moving within the movement of the Holy Spirit and the mighty things you are doing in this time, in this generation. Faithful, dedicated, and determined to love you and others.
Amen
