Is There Not A Cause?

And David said,

What have I now done?

Is there not a cause?

~ 1 Samuel 17:29

This rally cry I borrowed from Kent Hovind. The story is of David and Goliath. Visiting the front lines, David hears Goliath ridicule not only the nation of Israel, but also their God. The giant issues a challenge, and no man responds. After such provocation, David is beside himself. He runs all over the camp asking what is to be done. Is there not a cause to defend, worth fighting for?!

Terrorists know why they are fighting. They have a goal for which they are willing to die. In their training and execution of plans they are single-minded.

Mormons send every male to the mission field for two years. They knock on doors of strangers. The Book of Mormon is offered free of charge to any who would take it.

Football players dedicate their health and energy, not to mention the large portion of their memories required to learn plays and rules, to becoming the best, to winning. They run toward the prize.

Two of my friends are currently in Marine Bootcamp. When they left home they were allowed to bring their Bibles and the clothes on their backs. No letters. No novels. No comforting objects from home. Just the Bible and whatever could be slipped between the pages. For however long Bootcamp is (my future Marine brother will kill me for not knowing), their attention is pretty undivided. With all their waking strength their mind and body must be aiming towards that one goal. (Again, my brother would know what that one goal is, but he wouldn't be able to explain it to the uninitiated.) The point is television, friends, books, video games, camping, computers - anything that would divert their attention - are out of bounds.

If you've ever known a Marine, you probably have a taste of the result. What if there were Christianity bootcamp? What if after six weeks of intense Bible study without distraction from the aforementioned entertainments, you came out and lived life? What would people see? Now what if bootcamp never ended? What if your whole life, Ephesians 5:17 was true: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit..." Excess is in some translations dissipation.

Do you know why you are living? What is your cause? If all these other people doing petty or even diabolical things are dedicated so much that they let nothing distract them, how can Christians, who have the greatest truth and the greatest strength and the greatest hope sit at home?

"Know ye not

that they which run

in a race run all,

but one receiveth the prize?

So run,

that ye may obtain.

And every man

that striveth for the mastery

is temperate in all things.

Now they do it

to obtain a corruptible crown;

but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run,

not as uncertainly;

so fight I,

not as one that beateth the air:

But I keep under my body,

and bring it into subjection:

lest that by any means,

when I have preached to others,

I myself should be a castaway."

~ 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

To God be all glory.