In 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul describes the aspects of the love of God, one item on the list is love always protects. That scripture give a little light to this dream I dreamed last night. I dreamed that my wife and kids and I were in a parking lot. Some old friends of hers pulled in and came over to the car, they invited us to an MMA fight inside.
It turns out we were parked in front of a gym. There was a large event room for the fights but there was also a basketball gym and an MMA gym upstairs. It turned out that the event was cancelled, so me and the kids played basketball while the people we knew went upstairs to train. There was a man on the courts and I kept the kids out of his way but he still kept picking on them. It was really just mean for the sake of being mean, they weren’t causing him any trouble. After trying to handle the kids for awhile I started just coming over the top of this guy, saying meaner things to him than what he was saying to my kids.
He got upset but he didn’t stop. So I stopped giving him time to speak. I just berated him nonstop. Eventually I started hitting him in the head with the ball. He didn’t get the hint and tried to say something to my kids again. So I just slammed him on the ground and started beating his face in. Then for some reason I put him in an arm bar like an MMA fighter and locked it in. At this point I was trying to decide at what point to show mercy. Should I let him go when he taps out? Should I wait until something breaks? Should I hold the pain on him until I feel he’s learned his lesson? Should I just use all my strength and pay him no mind?
I decided to show mercy earlier than I really would have liked. I didn’t cause any permanent damage. It turned out he was upset that the MMA fight was cancelled, he was supposed to be a referee. It didn’t have anything to do with my kids though and his attitude towards them didn’t change. But I had protected my kids from being bullied by someone much too big for them to handle.
Now I didn’t understand this at first but as I was writing it I put God in my position as a parent. God is love, God is the perfect Father and He always protects. From our perspective that may not always be obvious but sometimes it is very obvious. Today in America God’s kids are in a tough situation. There are people preparing to fight but the fight is cancelled for now. The one’s who were trying to control the fight are very angry and taking it out on God’s kids.
God’s kids are not going to have to fight because God is going to do the fighting to protect us. We can just trust in Him and we will be protected. Don’t confuse that with comfort. The three Hebrew boys, Daniel, Noah, Jesus and all through the Bible we see examples of God’s protection. It’s not usually comfortable but it gets the job done. Remember those floaty chairs from that movie Wall-e? They made the people fat, stupid, lazy and incapable. That’s not God’s plan for us, but if all His work on our behalf was comfortable, that’s what we would get out of it. May the Lord protect you uncomfortably! May His face shine upon you in the darkest hour! May the Lord put those who would do you harm in an arm bar but still show them mercy in His goodness! And may God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 