008 - The Handmade Tale: New Beginnings

What are you holding on to?  What do you need to drop so you can pick up?  2021 is here and begs for a fresh start.  The inspired word aligned with an intimate world hoping to impact will.  Hands for war and fingers for battle.

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Transcript

Episode 8:  The Handmade Tale:  New Beginnings

Welcome back to Parallel Proof where the inspired word aligns with my intimate world with the hopes of impacting will.  To somehow influence intentions and desires of doing and being what we are called to be and accomplish.  This is my journey, and I am glad you are here with me.

Speaking of the inspired, there has always been a specific verse I read that I absolutely cannot shake from my mind.  It keeps popping up quite often.  David opens Psalm 144 by saying this, “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”  That’s like near superhero stuff.  Meant for us, when we read it for ourselves, or to be quite honest, some hearing that inspiration right now for the first time as you listen to this.  Those words were made for all of us.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, or into, God trains you, for whatever comes your way, and whatever you are about to face.  For those of you who struggle with believing in spiritual things, that’s OK, you are now 8 episodes in for a reason.  Keep hanging on.

2020 is near its threshold and 2021 is about to kick off.  Here comes a new year, and in this timeframe, many of us use it to make resolutions.  We say to ourselves, and others, here is how I want the new year to be different.  We have a distinct mindset and now we need to formulate a plan, as we spew the hopeful changes to anyone that asks.  There was a season in my history where I learned the importance of discipline.  Something we all can relate to in some way or another.  And that season of regiment causes me to pause, and apply life lessons, to the start of two thousand and twenty one.

This is episode 8:  The Handmade Tale:  New Beginnings

When I decided to change my course from pastor to cop, I didn’t realize what I was in for in regard to training.  I didn’t know I would become someone completely different than who I was at the start.  It was the dawn of a new era in my existence.  No one really prepares you by sitting you down and having a conversation of what to expect and what expectations are required from you to successfully complete not only the intense 6-month long police academy, but also the exceptionally nerve-racking, but vitally important, field training as a rookie cop on probation.  The profound discipline involved with both is overwhelming, and essential.  Literally, your life depends on how accurate and how swift you can make life and death decisions within fractions of a second.  Benjamin Martin as portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie The Patriot told his 2 young boys, “Aim small.  Miss small.”  Alluding to the fact that the training he provided, and the practice logged in shooting a rifle, was about to come in handy.

Here is just a very tiny glimpse into the rigorous dealings I subjected myself to for half a year.  I was standing there in full academy uniform, facing paper targets with a basic dark silhouette of a head and torso, when the commander yells, “FIRE!”  Your hand, placed next to your holstered pistol, must disable the 3 safeties inherent on certain holsters, you pull your pistol out of its resting place, bring it up level to the target, and squeeze off 3 rounds.  Pull the trigger straight back and not to the side as it will pull your barrel that same way.  Two to the chest, and one to the head.  And you better not miss.  This has to be accomplished in under 3 seconds.  If you can’t do it, you remediate.  If you fail the remediation, you are kicked out of the academy.  Day after day.  Round after round.  The training and muscle memory even in the hands and trigger finger is crucial.  Training hands.

This is a 6-month barrage of instructors in your face yelling at you and trying to break you.  They have to see if you have what it takes to keep your cool under stressful situations.  Can you follow the rules, and put self aside, for the purpose of understanding that absolutely everything done to you is to sharpen you, so you can save your own life, and the be the life-saving conduit for someone you may or may not know at all.  Training your hands for war and your fingers for battle.  Being prepared for whatever is thrown at you, subtly or overtly.

3 months in and I’m standing in a hallway with my other recruit mates, if that’s even a word, we are on a 15-minute break between lectures on use of force and California vehicle codes.  I need this breather.  Now there are certain expectations pushed to you that are non-negotiables.  Consequences abound should you break any of the Santa’s list long expectations.  One such violation was about to hit me hard.  No questions asked, anytime, and anywhere you are, if an academy corporal, or commander, those instructors who lead said academy, ever enter your eyesight or room, you must, without hesitation, lock yourself up against a wall.  Feet together.  Hands at your side.  Body straight as a board.  No movement. And for the love of God, don’t ever look them in the eyes.  That’s a no-no. No. Noooo. No no no.  Don’t’ do it.  In that hallway, around a blind corner comes waltzing a corporal.  Lock ups ripple down the hall like the wave done in a stadium.  I do as well.  All is well.  Or so I thought.

As the corporal is passing my frozen demeanor, he stops dead in his tracks, and backs up right in front of me and turns to face me.  I don’t dare look at his eyes.  His chin at the highest point most likely looking at his neck.  Out from his mouth and angry face blurts, “what the hell do you think you are doing recruit?”  My mind is racing.  What DID I do?  Or what am I NOT doing this very moment?  What should I be doing?  Why could his breath stop a charging rhino in its tracks right now?  What is wrong with me? “What the hell is that?” he barks at me.  He has his hand raised and finger pointing to my right side.  I look down, and for the love of all that is holy, I have a coffee cup grasped in my right hand.  The same side as my holstered gun.  In the same hand I use to grab that gun.  See, for 6 months, you are 100% absolutely NOT allowed to carry anything, and I mean ANYTHING, in your dominant gun shooting hand.  NOTHING.  Not coffee, not your gym bag, not your uniform on hangers, not your car keys, NOTHING.  And there I was, the nectar of the gods sloshing around in a Styrofoam cup, fully clenched in my shooting hand.  Right hand occupied and guilty as charged, with severe consequences to follow.  “Tomorrow morning,” the corporal demanded, “I want a 10-page handwritten single-spaced report handed to me and on my desk detailing why you should keep your gun hand free at all times.”  I hate him right now.  But, training my hands for war and my fingers for battle is a top priority.  Lesson learned.

I had to keep in mind and understand the teachers were caring.  They had my best interest in mind.  I knew extraordinarily little and I must take asylum in the fact that through their instructions and rules, experience and shouted words, I can become a force to be reconned with.

So here’s the parallel.

David knew God cares for everyone.  Like in episode 6 of this podcast, Hair and Birds, God sees the sparrow and has His eyes on them.  Our hairs on each of us are numbered.  David started with, “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,” and continued on with, “He is a loving God, and my fortress, my stronghold, and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.  Oh Lord, what is man that your care for him, the son of man that your think of him?”  We feel tiny, and we are quite often weak and tired and uninspired, and yet, we are in a battle for our lives and our calling.  The stay-at-home mom, the plumber, the company President, accountant, cashier, receptionist, salesperson, unemployed, the manager, artist, laid off, whoever you are, sitting in your car, your cubicle, your bathroom, your couch, doing dishes, you are called to make a difference and battle the negativity and wrong surrounding you.  Maybe you don’t feel called.  You are!

Life is packed with challenges mixed with decisions, a dash of the unexpected rolled into a package of the familiar day to day uneventful.  Along with the ordinary attempts to make life interesting, and not just something you put up with and get through, there are some great times, some fun memories, and instances where you feel you are doing good to those around you.  This is life.  This is Us.  It’s the end of 2020, and 2021 is upon us.  Please remember this, no matter what your life looks like, no matter how you feel about yourself, your worth, or your contributions, or your complete party fouls, there is a war for our thoughts, our beliefs, our actions, our influence, speech, and souls.  And we have a loving, caring, powerful God, that although He is what David proclaims, we have to believe that even in the monotony of life, or the wild times, the battles rage.  We should, and no pun intended, come to grips with the knowledge that our hands and fingers need to be trained.  We have to hold on to the very strong, sturdy, substantial, spiritual words of the Almighty Himself in which we can take refuge.  In Ephesians 6, Paul blasts us with reality and says, “Be strong in the Lord and put on his full armor.”  Why?  So you can “stand against the devils schemes.”  He says its not against flesh and blood.  My academy training was exactly that for conflicts against flesh and blood.  Our spiritual training isn’t.  Paul says it’s against the rulers, against the authorities, and the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  He tells us that when, yeah, WHEN the day of evil comes, and it will, you can stand your ground.  It might be subtle.  Begin training your fingers.  Grip the shield of faith and clutch the sword of the Spirit.  Use your hands to put on the breastplate of righteousness along with grabbing the helmet of salvation.  Jam that on your head.  Buckle the belt of truth around your waist and make your fingers tie the laces on the shoes fitting your feet with the readiness that comes with the gospel of peace.

Keep these items close and have your hands ready and open and unhindered so you can grab hold and put them on when its necessary.  Keep your dominant hand free.  And I’m speaking to myself here, let’s not hang on to things that will be a barrier between Gods purposes and fighting the resistance against them.  Be ready.  This comes through His words and closeness to Him.  I have tons of questions to myself and you might be asking yourself, are my hands ready, in a moment’s notice, when a split-second decision has to be made, are my fingers trained and free to quickly and decisively fit myself?  To put on the full armor immediately.  What am I holding on to that is diverting my attention and causing hesitation?  Are there any barriers between my calling and taking action?  I have to do some soul searching and decide what changes need to take place in my life this new year.  What do I drop?  What do I release out of my clasp?  What do I pick up?  One thing I know to begin picking up and clenching tightly, is the word and words of God, that life-giving, direction-pointing manual.  Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.  Be ready to let go and take up in 2021.

Thank you for being here.  Please hand this podcast off to someone you think may enjoy hearing real life paralleling the inspired word.  If you have stories to share of any kind, please email me at the link in the show notes.  Hold on and I will see you next year.