Original Entry:
January 13, 2009
McMinnville, OR
So I continued, “What you are doing is not
right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of
our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?” Nehemiah 5:9
I loved to be hated
by apposing teams. Calling opposing
players derogatory names energized me. In my high school years, before I met
Jesus, defeating the enemy consumed me, which is pathetic since we lost more
often than not. My strategy was to
abuse, injure, and inflict wrath in every way possible fair or unfair. One instance during my junior football season
stands out in infamy. An opposing team had a stud that punished me. No matter
what I did I could not stop him. In the first half we finally scored and he
lined up on my inside gap and I took the opportunity by putting my helmet on
his knee. The picture of him being hauled off in an ambulance is in our year book.
After Christ however,
the enemy paradigm was completely deconstructed. This dismantling was replaced with a biblical
paradigm that shifted my focus from the opponent to the King of Kings. The opponent ceased to be the enemy, or my
opponent for that matter, and was replaced with a desire to please my Audience
of One, Jesus Christ. Instead of being opponent-focused pleasing God with my
efforts became the measuring rod of victory. Honoring God became the goal and with
it was found the biblical definition of winning.
A key
passage is Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever
you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.
It is the Lord Christ you are serving. “
Nehemiah was living
according to God’s paradigm of winning in verse
9 when he admonished the men to “walk
in the fear of God.” When a man
walks in the fear of God his opponents become redundant, and hidden by a desire
to please God.
The opponent is
usually not the real opponent. The true
enemy of a man is the guy he shaves with every day. If he can defeat the man in
the mirror he will begin to please his King
