Always Faithful

I have to admit I’ve always been a fan of the Lost Cause, must be something in my southern upbringing. My favorite stories growing up were stories about King Arthur and his knights, when you knew from the beginning were going to be betrayed and killed, and yet you kept rooting for them the whole way.

And then there was of course Christ. God made man telling the world to love God more than rules, rulers or religion, and for than he was hung. And you read his story, always knowing the end will be crucifixion, and it makes the story all the more urgent.

I also think of Judas, the ultimate lost cause. When people talk of pre-destination and election I think of him, who was called the son of perdition. Was he lost before he was ever born, did he ever have a chance? I forget what verse I was reading, but it mentioned the other Judas and the author was sure to specify that it wasn’t Iscariot, because the name Judas itself became unclean through his act of betrayal. And yet Christ loved him. He called to him, it was God and Cain all over again, the one standing in the way of the other who was trying desperately to sin.

The old pastor’s last words as he left the church were “Semper Fi”, the motto of the Marines, that means always faithful. Words no man will ever fully attain. It recalls images of the last man standing, defending the hill against insurmountable hordes, bloody and wounded but unbowed, unbreakable.

I’m amazed at my own faithlessness at times; at how quickly I abandon a cause when the tide turns against me. I’ve seen too many leave their posts in times of trials, and I swore no to follow their lead. So today, with renewed vigor, I will carry the banner that Jehovah Nissi had given me. I will wave it at the very gates of Hell and prepare to meet the onslaught of the enemy. I may stand, I may fall, but my body will lay on the hill my savior has called me to stand.