Men of Valor

It’s Memorial Day today. My Grandfather was a WWII veteran and on Memorial Day we would often visit the farm and take in a remembrance service, and visit our family’s gravesite. I won’t be able to do that today. All my grandparents are with the Lord and now I am a grandpa.

Each of my grandparents loved the Lord, they loved their country, and they loved me. Grandpa Pierpont was a skilled storyteller and it was common for him to tell stories of manliness, honor, and valor. The success and survival of a community or a culture demands men of honor, principle, conviction and courage.

For four years I directed a Christian ministry housed in a large hotel. The hotel had sixteen floors. The building was originally a Hyatt Hotel in downtown Flint, Michigan so it looked like a public building, but it was not open to the public. Sometimes people from the street would get into the building innocently looking for services. Other times people from the street would get into the building to steal things or to do harm.

One night I was alerted by the front desk that there was in intruder in the building. I gathered a few men to investigate. We began to go from floor to floor and from room to room looking for the intruder. Word got out to the students who were housed in the building. The women stayed in their rooms but the men rallied like it was a grand adventure and when they rallied they were a sight to behold.

They looked for all the world like the invasion of the Visigoths and the Vandals. Every man had a make-shift weapon of some kind. There were ball bats, tennis rackets, table legs, pellet guns, blow darts, sections of bed frames, golf clubs and kitchen knives. One young man proudly produced a broad sword and another brandished a stout cast iron skillet. They assembled in the lobby. It was comical to see. Never before have I seen such an assembly of unbridled testosterone armed with sporting goods. If they did discover the invader I sincerely feared that he might collapse and die in violent convulsions of laughter at the sight of them. At the least he would be rendered powerless until the police arrived.

If you are a man you have an assignment from God to physically and spiritually protect those who are place in our care. Most men I know are not skilled in spiritual warfare. They are not a factor to be reckoned with. They are at best a little clumsy and ill-prepared for the enemies they face. They are aware of their responsibility to protect and provide physically but they are negligent in their spiritual responsibilities which are eternally more important.

We never found the invader and eventually the men made their way back to their rooms with their weapons to wait for another day, but the spiritual enemies a man must face are real and they are experienced and they are dangerous. Many millions of men stronger than you and I have had everything that is dear taken from them and demonically abused and mistreated before their eyes. Our enemy, Satan, would like to ravage those who are dear to you and take them into slavery in front of your eyes. Like the ancient enemies of Israel he would like to capture your loved ones, kill them and then put out your eyes so you are tortured with your last memory. He hates everything good and everyone God created, especially those who are the children of God. If you don’t deal with him he will deal with you and there are no exceptions to that rule.

Jesus said; When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. When the enemy considers you does he tremble or does he just laugh?

Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
Memorial Day May 28, 2007