Who is the enemy?

If you are playing a game, your opponent might be considered the enemy. When playing chess, your opponent is trying to capture your king, so that person is the enemy. In school, when your sports team plays another team, the team is always ‘the enemy’. Playing hockey can really create enemies. Have you seen hockey players with all their teeth? Some people have a bully that pesters you in school, so you might call them an enemy. But what about earlier in life?

When you are very young, you are just learning your place in the world. Your parents try to prepare you for life. Your mom might say to you “don’t put your hand in the fire” but you might not listen. The fire looks so inviting. The flickering of the flame and warmth emiting from the fire with the warm glow of yellow/orange light, you are drawn to it and stick your finger in the fire just like your parents said not to. The effect is a severe burning sensation. Fire can and does grow and consume everything if not controlled. It is no wonder firefighters call fire ‘the enemy’.

Speaking about parents, I wanted to be on the cities swim team. I was overweight as a child but once in the water, I was graceful so my parents signed me up. The swim trunks were mini speedos that left nothing to the imagination nor created any ‘drag’ in the water. My mom said that I would fill it in someday. I can’t determine if my mom was the enemy or the speedo. Maybe both?

In school, you are given an assignment by the teacher. When I turned the assignment in, I would get it back and it looked like a chicken walked in red ink then tap danced across my paper. Mrs. Ide, my 6th grade teacher, was the enemy. She actually expected words spelled correctly, proper names capitalized and correct punctuation in my assignments. I wonder if she had a special red ink pen just to grade my papers.

Then, some are unlucky enough to have an enemy at work. Someone that makes your work life miserable. That person is an enemy that endangers your job. You might desire to dispense a little ‘justice’ against your enemy. How much time is spent trying to deal with that rude person? How much time is spent distracted from your job?

Then there is marriage. If the In-Laws don’t think you are good enough for their child, they might become the enemy. And your spouse, if your relationship is not based in love, can become your enemy. If coming home does not create a place of safety and sanctuary, your married life can be draining. So would you say marriage is an enemy? How many marriages end in divorce?

You might think any one or all of the examples are that of an enemy, but wait, at this time in your life, you may have made a decision on a religion. Now, you can really say you may have an enemy. There are going to be those that hate you based on who you worship. And the one religious group that has the most enemies would be the Jews. It seems that almost all of the world is their enemy, trying to ‘eliminate’ them just because of who they worship. Seems for thousands of years, since the Isrealites obeyed God, and God made the Isrealite nation his ‘chosen’ people, the world has become the enemy of the Isrealites and God himself. (jealous much?) About the only friends of the Jews are Christians, who happen to worship a Jewish carpenters son. A religion of love and redemption instead of hatred and force. So for the Jews, the world that hates them are the enemy, followed by the Christians who are friendly toward the Jewish religion/nation.

What if you have political beliefs? Are you right leaning or wrong, er, left leaning? Seems that the left have adopted the beliefs of the socialist and call their enemies fascists, but forgot that fascists are, in fact, socialists. So for communists, are the fascists their enemy or those that believe big, bloated governments are the enemy?

No matter who you are, what your background is or what kind of up-bringing you had, life brings you enemies, it is how you identify them and how you react to them that defines you.

Now that I think of it, I remember a story:

A little bird was flying south for the winter but started late and stopped to get a little rest before continuing. Now it had snowed the night before and the little bird was cold and while it was taking a drink, a large chunk of snow fell out of the tree and buried him. He was so cold, he had almost froze to death when a cow relieved itself and a big steaming pile of cow plop landed on the little bird. Now the cow plop was hot enough to start to thaw the bird and it was no longer near death. Even though it was in the mess of the cow plop, it became so warm, it started to sing as it was thankful that it was not going to die in the snow. About that time, a cat heard that little bird singing and dug that bird out of the cow plop, cleaned it up…and promptly ate that bird. So what lessons can we learn from this story?

Don’t procrastinate on a journey;

Not everyone that craps on you is your enemy;

Not everyone that digs you out of of sh¥t is your friend;

If your feeling good while in a pile of crap and surrounded by the enemy, keep your mouth shut.

But if you delve deeper, you will find an even more important enemy.

I have read a book by Sun Zsu called ‘The Art of War’. Sun Zsu postulated that “…If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”. That means you must know yourself as well as your opponent.

So who is the the enemy? I have learned that the ultimate enemy of me is myself. I am my own worst enemy. Ignorance is an enemy. Lack of faith is an enemy. Hatred is an enemy. Not using the knowledge that I have learned over the years is an enemy. How I react to adversity can be an enemy. But, there is more.

I accepted the gift of salvation from Christ, so God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are with me, always. Deuteronomy 31:8. And since there is no one greater than God nor anything greater than God, it does not matter who my enemy is, does it?

So the ultimate enemy is the enemy of God! The fallen angel known as the ‘angel of light’ is the spirit that thought he could oust God from Heaven. Satan will do anything, say anything to embarrass God or destroy His creation. He derives great pleasure in creating confusion, division and hatred amongst Gods creation.

So who is your enemy? Ignorance, hatred or jealousy. Or are you going to allow the enemy of God to fleece and confuseyou, or are you going to allow the Spirit of the Lord to empower you against the enemy? Tally ho!