"...the only choice they have is their bullets or ours."

Have you ever seen Enemy at the Gates? Charissa and I watched it the other night. I thought it was a great movie. By the way, almost any movie that I see is a Clean Films movie (e-mail me for info), so if you see one and it has all kinds of "stuff" through it, sorry. I didn't see the unedited version. Anyway, the scene is set in World War 2. Russia is vigorously defending Stalingrad against the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces. The beginning of the movie shows literal cattle cars (pad locked to keep soldiers from escaping) rolling up to the battle scene and all of the young soldiers being herded out of the cars...after taking a step back from the imposing scent...and sent directly to the front line. The boats ferrying the soldiers across the river are under heavy attack. Army officers for the Russians keep the soldiers on the boats at all costs, even shooting the ones that jump off of the boat. They land on the other side and are issued weapons...for every other person. One soldier gets a gun, and the other gets a 5-round clip of ammo. There is a man standing above the guns saying, "One man gets a gun, the other man gets ammo. The one without a gun follows the one with a gun. When the one with the gun gets killed, the other man picks up the gun." Brilliant strategy, eh...and very demoralizing. They rush these half-scared young men into battle in a desperation charge where they are mowed down by the Nazi artillery and machine guns. HUNDREDS fall dead, and a young soldier shouts they should all retreat. What do they meet when they fall back? Russians with a few machine guns mowing them down for being "cowards" and retreating.

A few days later the hard-nosed general asks his officers for suggestions. One suggest imprisoning the families of some of the soldiers, another a similar punishment-focused option...all of which are already being done. Then, from somewhere down the line some says, "Give them hope." The general finds the vocal officer and glares him down. The officer suggests giving them hope, giving them pride in the country, giving them stories of heroes to aspire to be like. Other officers are shaking their heads and rolling their eyes the whole time. The thing that the officer said that caught me was, "...the only choice they have is their bullets or ours."

For whatever reason, that stuck with me. "Their bullets or ours." A battle. That is what we are in as Christians...the greatest battle that could ever be fought. So what about the people that we go to church with that need to retreat, maybe from the sins that the Enemy has used to ambush them? Do we open up the 50 cal and let the lead fly...spiritually speaking? Is the only choice that they have to face the literally impenetrable (without God and fellow "soldiers") attacks of the Enemy or turn around and get shot by the bullets that their comrades in arms fire at them?

I'll be honest (see, I'm off to a good start with being honest). I'm not the best at dealing with the retreaters. I want to welcome them, support them, pray for them, but sometimes I really don't know how to handle them. So may things seem to be "ambushes" that I haven't had to face. But what is our attitude? Where is the lead being aimed? By the way, I have no intention of this being a "bad mouth the church" blog. Complaining about the church does not fix problems. Complaining creates them, throws lead in the wrong direction like shooting a tank (instead of redirecting the cannon at the Enemy), and bombshells those around us. I've seen enough teens loose faith in the church because parents are too busy saying what's wrong with the church. Sure, we can sometimes influence others, but ultimately the main thing we can change...and will be held accountable to the General for...is ourselves. What about you? How do you handle the retreaters?

Let's lock and load and melt some barrels firing over the heads of our wounded and retreaters...fellow soldiers...into the front lines of the Enemy...and have the ambulance ready for them so that they can later return to action. Let's give them hope!