Friday, November 2, 2007

Defeat by Stealth

The date was January 17, 1991, five-and-a-half months after Iraqi forces had invaded Kuwait. More than 17 hours had passed since the deadline set for the withdrawal of those troops, and the world held its breath to see what would happen next. Precisely at 3:00 A.M, in the dead of night, eight F-117 Stealth fighters took off from King Khalid AFB in Saudi Arabia, headed for the capital of Iraq. Baghdad had taken shelter beneath the strongest concentration of air defenses in the world, having readied themselves with 76 surface-to-air missile launchers and as many as 4000 anti-aircraft artillery guns.

Knowing that an attack was imminent, the Iraqi gunners were glued to their instruments; however, their radar alerted them to no aircraft in proximity. Instantly as out of nowhere, a GBU-27 slammed into the TV station that aired CNN, drilling halfway down the tower before exploding. The entire building snapped in half. A surviving audio-only link allowed CNN Correspondent Peter Arnett to verbally describe the blinding spray of aimless return fire rising above the Baghdad skyline. The Iraqis hadn't even known an attack was in progress until the bombs had detonated.

Back at King Khalid, ground crews anxiously counted the returning aircraft, fully expecting to take losses, as was almost always the case with conventional aircraft. The commanders were delighted to discover that not only did every Stealth come back, but none of them bore so much as a single scratch. That night Bagdad suffered defeat by stealth.

Stealth technology has been referred to as "LO," or "low observability," which greatly reduces the distance at which a vehicle can be detected, especially by radar. It is not that stealth is not observable, only that it has a low observability.

There is also another form of stealth that has been used by none other than Satan himself many years before the modern F-117 fighters were ever flown. It is Satan’s way of blind-siding Christians with the "LO" strategy. While common for the people of the world, it is rather unexpected in the Christian. When it does appear, it generally does so through stealth. We call it bitterness.

As suggested, bitterness is common in the unregenerate, but it is not something that one would look for in Christians. You see, Christians are different. We are joyful, not sulky; we are forgiving, not resentful; we are sweet, not bitter. The Psalmist said, "In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore!" The Apostle Paul instructed Christians saying: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice!" and these are but two of the many passages that point to the cheerful disposition of the Christian. According to Scripture, bitterness is diametrically opposed to everything Christians are. Notwithstanding, the author of Hebrews warns us by saying, Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled (Heb 12:15).

This Scripture suggests a subtle element lurking beneath the soil-- "low observability" if you please. It is not a danger that threatens necessarily to overpower us, but to take us by surprise. Bitterness is subtle because it can be legitimate to feel a certain outrage toward what we perceive to be wickedness, sin, injustice or heresy, but the real danger lurks in what we internalize and allow to fester. When we let that outrage become personal and permanent, we become bitter.

Some bitterness is quite obvious, such as that of Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law. She was bitter, admitted it and felt no shame. Her tragedy was God’s fault and she felt she was entitled to her feelings. For whatever reason, there are those who just like to be bitter; they seem to enjoy it. This kind of bitterness cannot be hid; it is conspicuous.

I want to focus, however, on a strain of bitterness that is altogether subtle, and it lies at the heart of the polarization that Satan has perpetrated upon God’s people. It is unfortunate that there is not more unity of thought and belief when it comes to certain sensitive issues; however, the obsession that grips some people to defend their position, at all costs, is the more serious issue. As a result of this scenario, there are "liberals" embittered toward "conservatives" and "conservatives" embittered toward "liberals." The same could be said about other polarizing controversies as well.

Bitterness generally comes from an injustice, whether real or merely perceived. For the bitter person, however, that perceived injustice is always real! Rarely is it possible to convince a bitter person that the cause of his bitterness is not what he thinks it is. Although not always the result of some direct injustice, it is always based on the perception that our rights (or the rights of the people or causes we defend) have been violated. It is a failure to give up our personal rights to Christ, who said: if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, (including personal rights) and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Interestingly, bitterness has certain characteristics that make it distinguishable from other attitudes. 1) Invariably, the bitter person will talk frequently about the source of his irritation. 2) He cannot be satisfied to leave the offender to God. 3) He wants others to share his same attitude toward the offender, but 4) Above all else, the bitter person is characterized by an exceptional memory of the offense.

We have innumerable pleasant experiences in life, and we tend to forget the details of most of them. But this particular situation, we do not forget! Why? It is because we constantly rehearse it in our minds. We relive the experience again and again, both verbally with our sympathizers and alone in our thoughts.

Though bitterness may slip in silently, it never fails to leave its mark. It affects us physically, emotionally, but most of all spiritually. There is no way to sustain a relationship with God while harboring bitterness; neither should we call ourselves Christians if we have no victory in this regard. Christians are joyful people, not bitter.

This subtlety affects our ability to hear the voice of the Spirit. It is, as it were, a loud background noise in our lives drowning out the still, small Voice of the Spirit. The bitter person can hear a sermon which is exactly what he needs, but it can have no effect upon his heart when it has become hardened by bitterness. It leaves him blind and unable to be objective; he does not see his own spiritual condition because he is focused on the "sin" or "folly" of the offender, which he considers to be so much greater than his own.

Bitterness robs us of our ability to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. For this reason the Apostle wrote: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another . . . (Eph. 4:32.). In other words, bitterness siphons off our ability to feel compassion for the offender.

Finally, there are four ways that we can deal with bitterness. We can harbor it, destroying both our physical and spiritual health; we can "vent" it and spread its poison around; we can acknowledge it and bring it to the Cross for cleansing. Or best of all, we can reject it. By no means is bitterness an inevitable trap. Remember that stealth technology is "low observability," rather than "No observability." Fortunately, there are many modern examples of men and women who are models of God’s grace in facing the challenges of life with all of its unfairness.

Obviously, God has the grace to keep us sweet, but it is incumbent upon us to look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God . . .

No comments: