Go Back and Get Your Gun

For thirty years I have carried an image in my head of a scene from a movie long ago. The movie was called, "The Longest Day," and was about the D-Day invasion. It starred (among others) Robert Mitchum (center of pic above) as a tough man's man, gung ho type general. It's D-day they are on the beach he is leading the charge and he turns around and sees what appears to be an 18 year old, scared out of his wits, hiding behind one of the German beach defenses. (Below is another pic from the movie where you can see the little thing the soldier was hiding behind.)

The general notices the young man has dropped his gun, and is paralyzed in fear from all the bullets whizzing around. Mitchum steps out in the open, fearless, and simply says, "don't you think you ought to go back and get your gun?" The ocean behind, the enemy in front, the only real option the young man had was to fight his way out of the mess. Encouraged by his general, he retrieves his gun and joins the fight again.

People drop their guns for all kinds of reasons, and there are all kinds of guns people drop. I want to mention just one. There are many people who drop their guns, because they tried and failed, or because others and/or life shot them down when they tried. Moses was that kind of guy. He tried to help his people, his motives were right, but he overreacted and killed a man. Not only did he fail, but his failure was also one of the worse types of sins imaginable. He dropped his gun, ran to the wilderness and there he lay, paralyzed on the beach of life for 40 years. Then one day his general (God) interrupted him on the beach and basically said, "I am sending you back to do what failed to do so miserably at last time." God speaks to failures and says, "c'mon let's do this thing again." That is usually when the excuses start. This blog is just a shout out to all those of you who have dropped your gun because of fear or failure, your General is here today to say to you, "c'mon let's do this thing again." The ocean is behind, the enemy in front, the simple reality is that you can no longer live on the beach of inactivity. The general is not here to condemn but to motivate you forward. - Get your fire burning again.