The Warrior’s Journey

A young warrior walked upon the beach at sunrise and soon the Lord joined him.  As they walked silently side by side the man began to ponder life and death and the prospect of what could possibly await a man in Heaven.  He turned to the Lord and said, “I have done many things in my life, some unbearable for most men, I have held a dying child and felt helpless because I could not save her.  I have fought hand to hand with the figure of death and looked down at him desiring for him to get back on his feet and waiting for the storm.  I have hidden many of my fights from those who love me and I have sinned.   I know I fall far short of being much more than I hoped I would be.  Of these things my Lord I have hoped I have done enough of what was good and right to live in Heaven; tell me my Lord what does it take to go to Heaven?”

The Lord glanced out at the ocean and with an adoring gaze he looked in the man’s eyes, the Lord could see the pain, the appearance of exhaustion and he said all you need to know is in your heart.  Believe in me, that I am the son Jesus Christ who died for your sins and all is forgiven and you will retire to heaven.  The Lord then told him, sheepdog you have many sheep to protect from the wolf; your work is not done.  It is a nasty, vicious, horrible duty to attend to but you must continue your walk for I have chosen this path for you.  The sheep will not love you, at times they will despise you, and they will not understand you; love them and protect them anyway.  The Lord walked ahead and disappeared in the haze of the sunrise.  The warrior began to jog again.

Many days passed, many seasons passed. The warrior fought many battles, each one brave, some he only fought within himself. Each fight he won although he felt a piece of him dies with every other horrible death he was a part of.  As he continued to struggle on, he thought of what he had inscribed on the stock of his rifle, Matthew 5:9.  The warrior struggled on, across wasteland, across desert and across countryside he continued to search for the answer he felt his heart did not possess but inside his head always echoed “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God”.   Through all of his struggles in his heart he thought he could not find the answer.  As he sat on the mountain top the sun began to fade across the skyline; it painted a beautiful picture, he knew just as death, it could only come from above.  A crack of lightning went off, he checked his phone to confirm and he knew it was time to go to work.

Again alone within the realm of deadly battle he lay in the dark woods at the beginning of the great effort, scared he was not. Radios crackled, rounds barked all around him…some too close, scared he was not.  The shadow seemed to float out of the portal yet it did not dance in the cross hairs.  The sheep whimpered with fright and begged for mercy as the shadow violently squeezed the trigger, her death was near certain.  In between a heartbeat as the warrior pursed the air from his lungs across his lips, one motion of a trigger finger three pounds of pressure were manipulated, the man felt his own thunder bark.  Through cold rugged eyes his action was resolute; through the glass he saw it all.  The shadow fell, most likely all the way to hell.  The sheep would live, the warrior breathed a sigh and then he just walked away.  The sheep did live and he, the warrior again struggled for the answer, he was sure now he was further from finding it than he had ever been. 

Many more years passed and an old man walked through across the beach, he was reminded of fonder times before pain, he reminisced of a simpler time when all that mattered was being a child then a young warrior, an old warrior felt a quickening as his feet felt the cold spray of the ocean….he sensed he was close to home; he reached out with a struggling hand for the final moment….but not yet.  As he bent down the sea lightly brushed against the palm of an old man’s hand and made him feel slightly more alive and his eyes flashed back to the familiar sound of his thunder; he had relived it so many times.  He struggled to push back every moment of pain and then old wrinkled eyes lay rest upon a final sunrise and a visit from the Lord.  The old man looked up and said to the Lord, I thought you would never come……  The Lord asked, do you know the answer to your question. An old warrior man, rugged and tired with a tear in his eye looked up to the Lord and said yes it was with me all along just as you were, you never left my side.  Lord, I have learned to do my best, I can’t fix everything, I can’t save those who don’t want to be saved, and even the lambs sometimes get stolen by the wolves.  Lord I have also learned even in trying to find my own way I sometimes fell, I sometimes bled, I sometimes thought I would never make it.  Lord I learned I had to kill the wolf in order to protect the sheep, for along time I was not proud of that, but Lord then I saw the path you put me on and how it fit into everything under the heavens that is right.  Lord I never intended to send any man to hell but I understand at times I was the instrument you chose.   Lord I have learned to love; I have learned to forgive scorn and hatred and how to live happy despite the pain of an old warrior.  Lord I have loved a woman and a family and they have been proud of me.  Lord I understand now,…… take me home.  The Lord smiled at the old warrior and said to him, “Well done thy good and faithful servant you may enter into the house of the Lord”.

Together they left the beach walked toward the mountains and entered into valley, and crossed the river Jordan; just across the river the old man fought the urge to look back, the Lord told him, go ahead look back then let the pain go because all you will remember now is love. I now have love in my heart absolutely nothing else, I saw the face of love as I lay dying, with the escape of earthly breath, and we walked home together.