“You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms… (Jeremiah 51:20, ESV)
God is speaking of Cyrus the Great – or Cyrus the Persian. We know him in the Bible as the monarch of Persia that became the liberator of the Jews who were being held captive in Babylonia. Notice in the beginning of this verse that God refers to him as His hammer and His weapon of war. Wow. That’s intimidating for some I suppose. And yet, this is precisely how God viewed this common man, called to do uncommon things.
The common man, called to do the uncommon… This sparked a memory of mine from years past. I served honorably in the United States Army for almost nine years, and yet I always wanted or expected more from myself during that time spent. While serving, and searching for more, I found myself intrigued by our military special operations units that seemed so, as the military puts it, squared away. I remember reading as much as I could about our military SPECOPS as our special operations teams are commonly referred to as.
I read about each group that represented each branch and the group I became obsessed with learning the most about was our SEAL teams. These were common men, doing the uncommon, every day. In fact, their creed starts off stating the following: “In times of war or uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our nation’s call. a common man with uncommon desire to succeed.” Brothers – shouldn’t this be precisely where God calls each one of us? Our call is first that we are common, but that God calls us as leaders of our personal lives, our marriages, our homes, our churches, our communities, to do the uncommon tasks. We are faced with times of war at every corner we turn, with every decision we make, and with every new challenge that comes our way. The places we work, the cities we live in, the very churches that we serve – all share one thing in common. They have become our war zone.
The SEAL motto is, “The only easy day was yesterday.” I read that and I’m blown away with how apathetic I can become at times. I woke up this morning praying that my day would be easy. No hassles please, Lord. Can I coast today please, Jesus? I want to throw this thought out there: If we are in a war zone, why would God’s Chosen ever ask a question so bleak and void of purpose? Would the same God who created us to fight, call us to a place where we weren’t actively engaged in a fight?
Perhaps the answer is yes, and maybe not. While I have a hard time picturing in my sanctified imagination that every man is literally called to wield a sword on the battlefield, I don’t believe this is the only meaning behind the word fight. I’ll prove my point by pondering with you over the following questions: if we visit the sick, are we fighting? If we pray, are we fighting? If we drive our children home from a party because they did something they know they shouldn’t have, with our intent to keep them and others momentarily safe, are we fighting?
You bet we’re fighting! In fact, we need to stop and regroup, take the time to sharpen our swords, and hammer out dents in our armor. I’ve inserted the entire Navy SEAL Creed. Please take the time to read this and let it play as a reminder, in part, that we are called. We are common men of faith that are expected to do the uncommon. God has created us to be weapons of war.
Navy SEAL Creed / Ethos
Here’s my prayer for us as we depart from this blog post together, safe behind our computer and phone screens, without immediate threat or danger of losing our lives over our faith: Father, God – please use me, and my brothers, as hammers. Please call upon us to be your weapons of war. And when You do, Father, give us ears to hear Your heart-cry. Give us the courage to answer in the affirmative. In Your Son Jesus’ name, the Name above all names, Amen.
Trench Brothers 